Oil shares fall on growth worries, OPEC disunity

LONDON, July 8, 2021 – Shares of energy companies were weaker Thursday as worries over global economic growth come back in the face of a raging Delta variant.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) were all down around 1% each while Shell (NYSE:RDSa) and Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) shed around 1.6% each.

Crude oil for August delivery Crude Oil WTI Futures touched $70.78 a barrel today, down 8% from two days ago before recovering to $72.17. Brent Brent Oil Futures hit a low of $72.12 before trading flat at $73.46. On July 1, it touched a high of 76.74.
While the US has vaccinated more than half its population with at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and much of the developed is also on its way, the Delta variant, which first emerged in India, has charted its own course. It’s raging through Africa and parts of Asia. New cases of infection are rising in the UK and the US as well, raising questions about the pace of economic recovery.

Japan today declared a virus emergency that will last at least through the Olympics that start in its capital Tokyo in two weeks.

Worries about the direction OPEC+ would take with respect to crude prices are also lending to the weakness in crude prices. There are concerns that disagreement about production targets between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of the largest members of the cartel, could break the body’s tough-to-achieve unity and cause a collapse in oil prices, much like last year.

First published on Investing.com

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