by Noah Browning

LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - New lockdown measures taken in Europe to stem the spread of the coronavirus pose a downside risk to the outlook for global oil demand, an International Energy Agency (IEA) official said.

Keisuke Sadamori, the IEA's director for energy markets and security, told Reuters that the impact would likely be less severe than the lockdown measures taken earlier in the year.

"Much of the European continent is under lockdown. This will certainly contribute to negative effects," he said in an interview, without going so far as to say that the IEA would officially revise its forecast downwards.

"We expect that this time the impact will be less than during the last lockdown (...) This time, schools remain open and some shops are still open," he said.

Oil prices recovered after falling to more than 20-year lows in April, with Brent currently trading around $40 a barrel. But fears persist about the demand and the final outcome of the presidential election in the United States where Joe Biden was declared the winner without Donald Trump acknowledging his defeat for the moment.

"The oil and gas industry, in the United States in particular, is looking at the outcome of this election with enormous interest," Said Keisuke Sadamori.

"If the Democrats foresee a radical shift to low-carbon energy — if the Senate remains in Republican hands, there will be obstacles to that legislation."

The IEA's latest oil demand forecast dates back to October 14, before major European countries, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom, imposed new strict travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The Paris-based agency is due to publish its next analysis of the oil market on Thursday. (Noah Browning, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)