As the battle against COVID-19 rages on worldwide, the oil market takes another dip; The International Energy Agency (IEA) says we’re approaching a 25-year low in demand; This follows the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) warning of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
With the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, the IEA warned that the global oil market is nearing a 25-year low in demand after taking another dip on Wednesday. This follows in the footsteps of the announcement that came just hours before from the IMF, warning that the world is looking at the most significant recession since the Great Depression in its near future.
The seriously low demand for oil is a result of restricted travel throughout the world due to the virus and it’s having no small effect. The US market alone has approached an 18-year low after taking another fall on Wednesday, declining to just over $19/barrel. The Brent Crude price dropped an additional 5%, putting the price at approximately $28/barrel.
The IEA issued a warning that even if restrictions on travel were to be lifted for the second half of 2020, they anticipate that oil demand in 2020 will have decreased by over 9 million barrels per day (bpd). This would result in the erasing of nearly a decade of growth.