geopolitics

Global oil consumption is in free-fall, heading for the biggest annual contraction in history, as more countries introduce unprecedented measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Travel bans, work-from-home, canceled vacations, and disrupted supply chains across the world all mean reduced demand for fuel.

Last week saw upheavals in the financial and energy markets as the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly across the world and the OPEC+ production limiting agreement broke down.  

As the coronavirus epidemic spreads to some 60 countries, the outlook for the oil industry and, indeed, the global economy is undergoing a sea change.  

Oil prices settled lower Friday, ending eight consecutive up days, due to the increasing spread of the coronavirus outside of China.  London settled down 81 cents at $58.50, and New York finished 50 cents lower at $53.38.  

Oil prices rebounded last week as traders decided that the coronavirus was not going to expand much further outside of China and that control measures were starting to work.  WTI closed out the week at $52 a barrel and London at $57.  

Oil prices posted a fifth weekly decline, weighed down by the loss of demand from China caused by the coronavirus outbreak.  OPEC and Russia tried all week to come up with a unified position on how to contain the price slide.  

Oil prices fell for the fourth straight week on mounting worries about economic damage from the coronavirus that has spread from China to around 20 countries.  Futures closed the month down about $10 a barrel since the beginning of the year, seeing the biggest January loss since 1991.

Brent crude closed at $60.56 on Friday, its biggest weekly decline in more than a year as concerns that the coronavirus will spread farther in China, curbing oil demand.

Oil prices inched up a bit last week with Brent closing just below $65 a barrel after the US and Iran thought better of going to war.  Attention then shifted to the signing of the first phase of a US-China trade deal and the slowing Chinese economy.

Brent futures slipped to below $65 a barrel on Friday as the threat of war in the Middle East receded, and investors focused on rising US inventories and other signs of ample supply.  WTI closed at $59 a barrel.

Brent crude futures jumped nearly $3 a barrel on Friday after a US airstrike killed top Iranian and Iraqi military commanders in Baghdad.  Brent crude futures hit an intraday high of $69.16 a barrel, their highest since Sept 17th, before easing down to $68.60, up $2.35 for the day.  West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.85 or 3.04 percent to $63.05 a barrel, having earlier spiked to $63.84 a barrel, their highest since May 1.