Oil prices slipped on Monday as concerns over slowing global growth outweighed the prospect of tightening supply after talks among key producers to raise output in coming months stalled.

17, or 1.6.

Both benchmarks fell around 1 last week but are still not far off highs last reached in October 2018.

The spread of coronavirus variants and unequal access to vaccines threaten the global economic recovery, finance chiefs of the G20 large economies warned on Saturday.

Traders are now refocusing on the spread of the COVID19 pandemic and global concerns over the new variants expansion are weighing on prices, despite tightening oil supplies globally, Rystad Energy analyst Louise Dickson said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group known as OPEC, abandoned talks last week over an output deal, which included pumping more oil from August, after a dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about how to extend the pact.

Although failure to agree means less oil in the short term, analysts say the collapse of talks raises the longer term prospect of producers abandoning the deal and pumping at will.

The market has been a bit negative as of late amid the growing sense that the latest OPEC impasse could be a precursor to a pumpandgrab scenario, meaning a lot more oil potentially gets put on the market, said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.

Saudi Arabia and Oman called on Monday for continued cooperation between OPEC and…