Month in brief

摘要

April was another traumatic month for oil markets. It began with a sharp price rally, after Brent sank below $25/bbl at the end of March. The upward pressure was largely due to anticipated output cuts by the OPEC-plus group, possibly in cooperation with a still wider group of producers, although the extent of the impact from Covid-19 on demand continued to grow. Comments from President Trump saw strong gains on 2 April, and the following day Brent settled up nearly 14% and WIT climbed 12%, as Russia indicated it would be involved with the cuts and that a record-breaking 10mn b/d OPEC-plus reduction was on the cards.