Asian spot prices rally to eight-year seasonal high amid LNG supply crunch

Doha: Oil prices fell about 1 percent on Friday, posting their steepest weekly loss in months, on worries that travel restrictions to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 will derail the global recovery in energy demand. 

Brent crude oil futures settled down 59 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $70.70, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 81 cents, or 1.2 percent, to settle at $68.28 a barrel. For the week, global benchmark Brent shed more than 6 percent, its largest week of losses in four months, and WTI tumbled nearly 7 percent in its biggest weekly decline in nine months. The slump in crude prices over the last week has come as the Delta variant has prompted renewed mobility restrictions. Both China and Japan have reinstated lockdown measures in some regions to limit the spread of the highly transmissible variant. Japan is poised to expand emergency restrictions to more regions of the country, while China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, has imposed curbs in some cities and cancelled flights.