Early on Wednesday, WTI crude oil prices are trading bearish following a rise in US crude inventories over the previous week, once again raising fears about weakness in demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing, WTI crude oil is trading at around $39.45 per barrel.

According to the API report which released on Tuesday, crude stockpiles in the US increased by 691k barrels during the previous week. On the other hand, economists had forecast a drawdown of 2.3 million barrels for the period.

At the beginning of this week, US oil lost more than 4% of its value over demand concerns as more countries reimposed lockdown restrictions due to a second wave of cases. Meanwhile, the supply side of oil is also exerting pressure on prices as Libya gets ready to restart oil production after months of blockade.

Leading industry groups have predicted a sharp fall in global oil demand, revising their forecasts lower as the pandemic still rages on. The latest forecast from the Eurasia Group expects oil demand around the world to fall by over 10% YoY to around 90 million bpd.