PARIS: The International Energy Agency warned Thursday the world oil market remains fragile, despite a recent recovery in prices, as tighter restrictions are imposed to curb more contagious coronavirus variants.
“The rebalancing of the oil market remains fragile in the early part of 2021 as measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, with its more contagious variants, weigh heavily on the near-term recovery in global oil demand,” the IEA said in its latest monthly report. Opec producers plus their non-cartel allies, principally Russia, have stuck to hard-won output limits, driving prices back to around US$60 per barrel, levels last seen early last year before the pandemic took hold.