Oil dropped 1.7 percent at 1137 GMT today . Concern about geopolitical tensions eased and Chinas rising number of COVID-19 cases fueled expectations .
London (AFP) — Oil dropped 1.7 percent at 1137 GMT today, as concerns about geopolitical tensions eased and China's rising number of COVID-19 cases have fueled expectations for the world's largest crude exporter.On Wednesday, Poland and NATO announced that a missile that crashed inside NATO member Poland was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defenses, not a Russian assault, easing concerns that the war between Russia and Ukraine is going across the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude in the United States dropped $1.42, or 1.7 percent, to $84.17 on Thursday.Concern about weak China demand weighed on the market.China reported increasing daily COVID-19 infections.
Although Chinas COVID caseload is small relative to the rest of the world, it maintains strict regulations to prevent problems before they arise, dampening fuel demand.In November, OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, implement their new output reduction, which seeks to maintain the market.