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Oil Prices Plunge Fourth Straight
Week & US Crude Sustains Severest Weekly Loss Since 1991
21 March 2020
US crude fell 10.7% in Friday’s session and
recorded the lowest weekly loss since the breakout of Gulf War I in
1991, as coronavirus dried the world demand on oil and also the
declaration made by some US officials in Washington that a delegate will
head to Saudi to deal with the repercussions of the prices war between
Saudi and Russia.
Last week witnessed extensive sales over
four consecutive days as the increased pandemic blocked people from
driving cars, and booking air flights. Giant forecasters like Vitol Oil
and AHS Market said that the demand on the crude may fell another 10%
although oil prices rebounded strongly on Thursday following selling
transactions over several days but the uptrend did not last long.
On the other hand, the US crude sustained a
hard weekly loss of 29% which is the severest since the breakout of the
Gulf War in 1991 while Brent crude dropped by 20%. Prices of both
benchmark oils continued their drop for four consecutive weeks.
Furthermore, futures declined by 5.2%
($1.49) in Friday’s session to settle on $ 26.98 a barrel. US crude
futures ‘April delivery’ dropped also 10.7% ($2.69) to close on $ 22.53
a barrel, lowest maturity falls on Friday. The US crude most active
contracts ‘May delivery’ closed at a fall of 12.7% ($ 3.28) at $ 22.63.
The US crude lost half of its value in the
latest two weeks while Brent fell 40% where demand shrank due to the
pandemic concurrently with the collapse of production cuts talks among
OPEC and Allies including Russia.