Weak Demand Pushes Crude Oil Below $19

Oil fell below $19 per barrel in New York after a wave of gloomy demand forecasts and a cratering physical market outweighed an unprecedented deal to cut output.

China’s economy suffered a historic slump in the first quarter with the coronavirus outbreak threatening countries around the world, Bloomberg reported.

OPEC expects demand for its crude will fall to the lowest in three decades, and the International Energy Agency predicted that oil use would slump by a record this year and potentially make 2020 the worst in the market’s history.

US oil futures have come under huge pressure as concerns grow that stockpiles at the key storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma will fill to capacity.

That has increasingly disconnected it with Brent futures in London. Dated Brent was assessed at $18.86 on Friday, according to S&P Global Platts, far below futures prices, and real cargoes are trading at even steeper discounts to that.

A record deal by OPEC and its partners to cut production by 9.7 million barrels a day is falling short of reviving the market.