Oil steadies at $55.89 a barrel as Covid-19-induced demand worries persist

Oil steadied on Thursday after early declines fuelled by delays to vaccine rollouts and fresh travel curbs to prevent new coronavirus outbreaks.
 

Brent crude futures were up 8 cents, or 0.1%, at $55.89 a barrel by 1331 GMT, having hit a session low of $55.31.
 

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 8 cents, or 0.2%, at $52.77 after dropping as low as $52.22.
 

Oil prices were supported by data on Wednesday showing a huge 10 million barrel decline in US crude inventories last week, which analysts said was because of a pick-up in US crude exports and