Oil holds drop near $62 with virus flare-up looming over market

Oil was steady in early Asian trading with a Covid-19 flare-up in India and other nations dragging on the near-term demand outlook, even as OPEC+ projected a strong global recovery this year.

Futures in New York traded near $62 a barrel after slipping 0.4% on Monday. An OPEC+ technical committee raised its forecast for demand growth in 2021, but cautioned that a resurgent virus in India, Japan and Brazil could derail the oil demand recovery. The second Indian wave has been particularly deadly as it overwhelms the health-care system and cripples fuel consumption.

Indian Oil Corp., the country’s biggest refiner, is looking to offload gasoline into the spot market in a rare sale, while other processors are postponing planned maintenance at some plants as workers either flee or fall ill.