Oil prices dropped for the second day on Friday and are on track to decline 0.5% weekly after the IEA warned that growing demand for crude may halt in July and is set to rise at a slower pace over the rest of 2021 due to the surge in infections from the Delta variant of COVID-19. In China, tighter curbs to fight the latest outbreaks reportedly are starting to hit more parts of the economy, with Ningbo airport suspending inbound and outbound flights to the capital Beijing from August 11th. Turning to inventory news, the EIA figures on Wednesday showed US crude stockpiles fell 0.447 million barrels in the week ending August 6th, below market expectations of a 1.1 million barrels draw, while the API report on Tuesday pointed to a 0.816 million barrels drop. At around 03:30 AM GMT, both WTI crude and Brent oil shed 0.6%, each, to $68.65 a barrel and $70.9 a barrel.
