Oil Prices Dip as Economic Worries Offset Tightening Supply Prospects

Brent crude for September fell 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $75.40 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude for August was at $74.44 a barrel, down 12 cents, or 0.2%, Moneycontrol.com reported.

The spread of coronavirus variants and unequal access to vaccines threaten the global economic recovery, finance chiefs of the G20 large economies warned on Saturday.

A Reuters tally of new Covid-19 infections shows them rising in 69 countries, with the daily rate pointing upward since late-June and now hitting 478,000.

"We have not yet seen the impact but at this rate, it will hit demand sooner or later," a Singapore-based oil trader said.

Oil prices slumped last Tuesday after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, did not reach an agreement to increase output from August. This was because the UAE rejected a proposed eight-month extension to OPEC+ output curbs.

"Prices are going to stay volatile for as long as the impasse remains," said Howie Lee, an economist at Singapore's OCBC bank.