Oil: American crude plummeting in Asia

Text by: RFI Follow

American crude oil unscrewed on Monday in Asian trade, falling below 15 dollars per barrel, its lowest level in more than two decades. It is facing a dizzying drop in demand and in American reserves which could soon reach saturation.

Publicity

American barrel West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May tumbled 19.27%, reaching $ 14.45 per unit, its lowest level since 1999, Agence France-presse reports on Monday . For its part, the barrel of Brent North Sea, European benchmark, was less affected, yielding 2.53%, to 27.37 dollars.

Oil markets have plunged in recent weeks to their lowest level in twenty years. Due to the coronavirus crisis , travel restrictions around the world and the paralysis of many economies have reduced demand .

On the supply side, the market was flooded with low-cost oil after Saudi Arabia, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), launched a price war with Russia to gain maximum market share. market. The two countries put an end to their disputes at the beginning of April by agreeing, with other countries, to reduce their production by nearly 10 million barrels per day to stimulate the markets affected by the virus .

But prices continued to fall sharply when it became clear that the promised reductions would not be enough to compensate for the massive drop in demand caused by the pandemic.

(with AFP)

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Listen to Coronavirus Info , daily chronicle on the pandemic

• Explanation:  The origins of the Covid-19

• Analyzes:
→ What strategies to face the epidemic ?
→ What impact on conflict zones?

• Practical questions:
→ What we know about the mode of contagion
→ How do we treat the sick ?
→ What results for the ongoing clinical trials?
→ How the Institut Pasteur hopes to find a vaccine
→ How to make a mask and use it well

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also the files of RFI Savoirs  on the Covid-19:
• Birth of a pandemic
• Everyday life to the test
•  The history of epidemics

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Economy
• Coronavirus
• Economic crisis

On the same subject

Chronicle of raw materials

Oil: global stocks stifle US production

Chronicle of raw materials

Majors announce economic plans in the face of falling oil prices

Chronicle of raw materials

Debt against oil in Africa: banks on the front line