Oil prices were off today, as concerns build over rising COVID-19 cases and the state of the economy in Q1 and going forward. This is the first weekly decline in 3 weeks as financial contracts had been boosted by strong equities and a weaker dollar. “The COVID-19 pandemic’s spread is taking center stage again and traders are getting increasingly worried about the long duration of European lockdown and about the new restrictions (in) China,” Bjornar Tonnage from Rystad Energy said. Asia was the main pocket of demand that remained pretty strong over the last few months and rising cases in China and lockdown measures taken to combat that are putting new pressure on prices. WTI traded down $1.21 or -2.26% to close at $52.36. Brent traded down $1.32 or -2.34% to close at $55.10<\/p>\n\n\n\n