US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — World oil prices on Monday morning show a decrease of more than 4% for major brands on concerns about the magnitude of the impact of the spread of the new coronavirus on global demand for raw materials, according to trading data.
As of 7.58 UTC, the price of June futures for the North Sea Brent crude oil mixture drops by 4.15%, to $ 26.78 per barrel, May futures for WTI crude oil – by 4.6%, to $ 20.51 per barrel.
At night, the price of WTI crude oil fell below $ 20 per barrel, for the first time since 2002, and reached the level of $ 19.92 per barrel. Oil markets are still influenced by falling demand, caused primarily by the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Health Organization on March 11 announced an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19 with a pandemic. According to the latest WHO data, more than 634 thousand cases of infection have been recorded in the world, almost 30 thousand people have died.
In addition, the “price war” continues to influence the market, unfolding after it became known that the OPEC + countries in early March were unable to agree either to change the parameters of the agreements to reduce oil production in force since the beginning of 2017, or to extend their validity.
In particular, Russia proposed to preserve the existing terms of the agreement, and Saudi Arabia – to further reduce oil production. As a result, from April 1, the member countries of the former alliance lifted production restrictions.
Against this background, Saudi Arabia on Friday announced that it is not negotiating with Russia on the “balancing” of oil markets.
“OPEC, Saudi Arabia and Russia could settle their differences, but OPEC can not do much in the current situation … The drop in demand due to COVID-19 is too great,” said Lachlan Shaw, head of research in the commodity sector at National Australia Bank, quoted by Reuters.
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