Oil holds above $70 despite forecasts for weaker demand growth | Reuters

Oil holds above $70 despite forecasts for weaker demand growth | Reuters

The Brent benchmark oil price held above $70 a barrel on Friday, broadly shrugging off a warning from the International Energy Agency that the spread of coronavirus variants is slowing oil demand growth.

Brent crude was down 18 cents, or 0.2%, at $71.13 a barrel by 1332 GMT. U.S. crude lost 14 cents, or 0.2%, to trade at $68.95. Over the week the benchmarks are up less than 1%.

The IEA this week highlighted that growth in demand for crude oil ground to a halt in July and is set to rise at a slower pace over the rest of 2021 because of surging infections from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. read more

Banks have also lowered their near-term demand forecasts.

"We now see the global demand recovery stalling this month with oil demand only reaching 98.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in August and averaging 97.9 million bpd in September, on par with the nearly 98 million bpd average in July," JPM Commodities Research said.