Saudi Arabia’s shock plan to push an additional 2.5 million bar-rels per day of oil into an already oversupplied market sent oil prices crashing. International benchmark Brent shed $14.20 per barrel last week to close at $35.79/bbl Thursday, with US price-pin West Texas Intermediate (WTI) down $12.92/bbl to $32.98/ bbl. Oil prices have fallen by half since the start of the year and now stand at their lowest level since early 2016. Saudi Arabia plans to sell 12.3 million b/d of oil in April, at the start of what is already the weakest demand quarter of the year, even without the coronavirus battering global demand. The breakdown of the Opec-plus alliance has sparked a price war, with other producers, including Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria all indi-cating they will also increase output. The supply surge confronts oil demand devastated by the continued rapid spread of the coronavirus, which is paralyzing travel and trade globally.
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