Oil drops on rising India COVID-19 cases, U.S. pipeline restart

Oil prices dropped on Friday after easing nearly 3% on Thursday as COVID-19 cases remained high in major oil consumer India and as a U.S. key fuel pipeline resumed operations following a cyber attack.

Brent crude oil futures fell 0.2%, or 10 cents, at $66.95 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid 0.1%, or 3 cents, at $63.79 per barrel. Both benchmarks are on course for their first weekly loss in three weeks.

Prices fell under pressure as a surge in commodity prices and better-than-expected U.S. consumer prices data stoked inflation worries that could urge the Fed to raise interest rates.

Higher rates generally lift the dollar, making dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers of other currencies.

Meanwhile, India posted 343,144 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its overall cases past the 24-million level. The country’s COVID-19 death toll climbed by 4,000.