Oil prices fell by more than six percent last week

Oil prices improved on Friday (March 19) after a five-day continuous decline, but fell by more than 6% over the past week. The April contract for US oil WTI added $ 1.42 or 2.4% on Friday and closed at $ 61.42 (€ 51.65) per barrel (159 liters). The May contract for the North Sea Brent oil blend strengthened by almost 2% and closed at $ 64.53 per barrel. Prices of futures contracts for both reference types of oil lost about 7% on Thursday (March 18). Over the past week, black gold prices have been negatively affected by concerns about the outlook for demand, which has increased the rapid increase in new cases of Covid-19 in some parts of the world, new anti-epidemic restrictions in some countries and a slowdown in vaccination. Other negative factors were the strengthening of the dollar, but also the increase in tensions between the USA and Russia, which could cause Moscow to increase oil production.