Oil prices retreated on Friday, with the US benchmark falling below $41 a barrel amid persistent concerns over weakening demand from the worsening coronavirus pandemic. The IEA said in its monthly report that oil demand is unlikely to get a significant boost from the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines until well into 2021 while revised down its fuel demand outlook for 2020 by 400,000 bpd to a fall of 8.8 million bpd. Pressuring prices further were data from the EIA showing crude oil inventories in the US unexpectedly rose by 4.278 million barrels last week. On the supply side, hopes that OPEC+ will delay a planned easing of production cuts from the start of next year limited losses.
