The price of oil in the European market decreased by 13%
In the first two decades of February the price of oil in the European market was moving with the trend to the increasing trend in the range of 53-60 dollars per barrel. Support for oil prices provided informational OPEC actions +.
In the beginning of the month in Vienna held a three-day meeting of the technical Committee of OPEC +, the results of which should be agreed on cutting oil production by 0.5-1 million barrels per day. 23 of the 24 countries agreed to further reduce the volume of oil production of 0.6 million barrels per day. Russia has not given its consent to the reduction of production, explaining it by the need for more time to study the situation.
the Technical Committee of the OPEC + gave recommendations for reducing the volume of oil production of 0.6 million barrels per day. Recall that the previous agreements are valid until March 2020, in accordance with which the efforts of OPEC + to reduce the total oil production by 1.7 million barrels per day compared to October 2018.
Thus, taking into account the recommendations of the technical Committee, the overall production could be reduced by 2.3 million barrels compared to October 2018.
Saudi Arabia insisted on an emergency meeting of OPEC, but Russia does not agreed and in February it did not take place. A planned meeting of OPEC + will take place on 5-6 March. The price of oil increased on expectations of a substantial reduction in the volume of oil production, but it never happened.
In the third decade of February the price of oil plummeted from 60 to 50 dollars per barrel on the background of a significant excess of oil supply over the demand due to the spread of coronavirus in the world and the lack of concerted action between OPEC + Russia.
In accordance with the report, the IEA, in the first quarter of this year is expected to fall in the world demand for oil in the 435 thousand barrels per day. It is also expected a significant surplus of oil in the first half of this year. The whole 2020 the decline in demand, the IEA have already estimated 825 thousand barrels per day.