BUSINESS REPORTER
MUSCAT, MAY 10
Oman crude oil futures contract (OQD), the Asian crude oil pricing benchmark, is back at around $65 per barrel on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), one year on from the lows of April 2020.
“OQD trading on DME averaged just over $65.00/b in January 2020, reaching a low of $16.82/b on April 28 as lockdowns across the globe severely hampered economic and industrial activity,” said DME in a post on Monday.
“In April 2021 and one-year on from the lows, oil prices are back to pre-pandemic levels. In early May 2021, Oman futures were back at around $65/b,” it further noted.
The retreat in oil prices February-April 2020 was one of the most dramatic periods in energy market history, comparable with the credit-crunch led price collapse of 2008 – albeit from a much higher starting point in 2008, the platform said.
It noted that the 2020 price drop was also accelerated by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries members (Opec+) producer group failure to back a Saudi proposal in March to scale back production. But the rebound was kick-started by the historic Opec+ agreement in April to reduce supplies to match the demand side, it said.
“From over 100 million barrels per day (bpd) of pre-coronavirus demand, consumption was estimated to have dropped by over 20 million/b day at the peak of demand destruction, and one-year later consumption is still around 6 million bpd from the peak,” DME added.
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