Oil prices drop as OPEC meeting postponed to Thursday

LONDON, April 6, 2020 – Oil prices slid in Asia on Monday morning as OPEC+ delayed a meeting scheduled for later in the day to Thursday.

International Brent Oil Futures lost 6% to $32.74 by 9:55 PM ET (2:55 AM GMT) and US Crude Oil WTI Futures also dropped 6.1% to $26.61, continuing their slide from the last session.

The announcement of the meeting, called to mediate a truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia in their ongoing price war sent oil prices soaring last week.

But tensions between the two producers led to a three-day postponement and increased investor fears that these latest talks will also end in failure like the last meeting in March.

“It’s probably going to crater,” Again Capital’s John Kilduff told CNBC. “There was a lot of optimism priced into oil Thursday and Friday. With this new Saudi, Russia spat, it doesn’t look like it’s going to come together.”

Saudi oil minister Khalid A. Al-Falih called for producers “outside of OPEC+,” such as the United States, Canada and Norway, to lend their support on Sunday.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reduce global demand, oil still cannot resolve its inevitable oversupply dilemma.

“The energy sector is facing its most challenging fundamental period since the Great Energy Depression of 1981-1995,” Kurt Hallead, RBC co-head of global energy research, told CNBC.

“On the oil front, demand is set to decline by amounts never before seen driven by the COVID-19 global economic shock while supply is surging due to the Saudi-Russia oil price war,” he added.

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