June futures for Brent oil mixture fell by 2.7 percent to $62.74 per barrel, May futures for WTI closed down 2.3 percent to $59.16 per barrel.
In the first quarter, Brent and WTI rose in price by 21 and 22 percent, respectively, while February was the best month for oil since November 2020. Sharp jump in oil prices by 18 percent in February for both brands was largely due to the OPEC+ decision on its output cut deal. In January, some OPEC+ countries agreed to cut production in February-March by a total of 1.425 million barrels of oil per day, of which 1 million barrels per day was Saudi Arabia's obligation.
In addition, news of large-scale vaccination globally and an overall improvement in the epidemiological situation pushed oil prices up. Traders were optimistic about the prospects for the global economic recovery and oil demand. Thanks to this optimism, prices rose to new highs since the beginning of January 2020, reaching $71 per barrel of Brent and $67.98 per barrel of WTI.
