OPEC and its allies once again ratified a small monthly increase in production, even as global markets look set to tighten because the European Union is considering banning supplies from Russia.
Oil was poised to resume a run of weekly gains on signs consumption is picking up as economies emerge from lockdowns, despite many countries still struggling to bring the coronavirus under control.
WTI was anchored near $25 a barrel as investors weighed cuts to supply by major producers such as Saudi Arabia against lingering concerns over the pace of recovery from virus-led demand destruction.
Of all the wild, unprecedented swings in financial markets since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, none has been more jaw-dropping than Monday’s collapse in a key segment of U.S. oil trading.
The price of oil is notoriously fickle. We’ve seen the worst of that over the last two years – and you could even say in the last three months.
This week’s shutdown of the Keystone oil pipeline has stopped up the route for roughly a quarter of the crude flowing into the U.S. Midwest.
Unseasonably warm weather and rising supply will keep the crude oil market oversupplied until at least late 2016, according to the International Energy Agency.
Not even the pessimists on Wall Street thought things would go so wrong so fast in 2016.