With India reeling under the pressure of another wave of pandemic cases, India reduced the recovery period for oil demand thereby, upsetting the optimistic outlook for a bounce-back in consumption levels of oil in China and the developed countries. Brent Crude futures’ prediction for July fell by 0.7% to $ 66.28/barrel at 06:20 AM GMT.

State–level restrictions in India, aimed at holding the tide of infections, led to a fall in the sales figures for fuels in the world’s third-largest economy. A K Singh, Head of Marketing Bharat Petroleum Corp said, “Overall fuel demand is down by 7% from pre – COVID level of April 2019.” He also, pointed out that India’s recovery to pre – COVID levels were nearly achieved in March, this year.

As the number of COVID cases is on the rise at a perilous rate, a further slump in demand for fuels is predicted, for India, due to further planned restrictions.