Oil Prices Fall to Lowest Level Since 2002

Oil prices fell on Wednesday to lowest level since 2002 after a report issued by the International Energy Agency (IEA), stating that the global demand for crude will hit the worst level in nearly 25 years.

According to Bloomberg, US crude contracts West Texas Intermediate (WTI), underlying commodity for the NYMEX's oil futures, fell during the trading today to 19.20 dollars a barrel, the lowest level since the year 2002.

WTI is often compared to Brent crude, which is the oil benchmark for two-thirds of the world's oil contracts.

By mid trading, US crude was traded at $ 20.10 a barrel, a 0.05% drop from previous price, whereas, Brent contracts were traded at $ 29.17 a barrel, a decrease of 1.45% from the previous settlement price, before trading at a low of $ 28.5 a barrel.

The decline came after the IEA expected that the global demand for oil will decrease by 29 million barrels per day on an annual basis in April, to a record not seen in 25 years.

Experts say that the global demand for oil fell by 25 million  bpd due to the corona pandemic and its economic repercussions.

The decline comes today despite the agreement reached by the OPEC + group, according to which the countries reduce their production by about 10 million bpd in both May and June 2020, provided that the cuts are gradually reduced in the second half of this year until April 2022.