Oil Bears in Play amid Rising Cases of COVID-19

Oil bulls are also cruising on reports revealing Joe Biden’s Presidency declared a pause on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters while a “rigorous review” occurs, meaning oil supplies would be tamed at least for the mid-term.

Although such move weighed heavily on U.S oil firms stocks on the bias that it could curb their crude oil reserves growth.

Still, oil traders are becoming more wary even with the recent roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine across key economic hubs due to the new and more impervious COVID-19 strains, coupled with growing conviction among energy experts that the easing of lockdown restrictions in play might take longer than anticipated.

Consequently, oil bears are raising their heads up after, the recent downgrade of 1Q 2021 energy demand some weeks back due to extended lookdowns in the Northern Hemisphere keeping Brent crude bulls’ rally exhausted in breaking above $56 a barrel.

In addition, oil bears gather enough gas in halting the black liquid’s upsides as the world’s largest importer of oil tightened social mobility in key economic hubs ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush, triggering oil traders to tame their long positions across the market spectrum at the oil futures market.

That said, oil traders are primarily focused on efforts made by OPEC+ members, particularly the Saudis and most recently the Russians exposing their strategy cutting its Urals crude exports by almost 20% to a three month low this month, as a significant amount of its black fossil gets diverted for local consumption due to harsh weather condition in play.