Surging coronavirus cases in the Americas and Europe necessitated an additional cut to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) closely watched forecasts for oil demand.

OPEC said Wednesday it now expects full-year 2020 global oil demand to decline by 9.8 million b/d, or 10%, from a year earlier. That marked a downward revision of 300,000 b/d from its report released in October.

For 2021, the group estimated that demand would recover, expanding 6.2 million b/d, though that outlook also reflected a 300,000 b/d drop from OPEC’s previous forecast. The group has lowered its 2021 demand outlook three consecutive months.

The revisions “mainly take into account downward adjustments to the economic outlook” due to Covid-19 containment measures, “with...