OPEC lost a trillion dollars in the price crash in 2015, how much did it lose during the Corona virus crisis?

8 Jun 2021 05:32 PM

At the Fourth International Petroleum Summit in Nigeria, the Secretary-General of the Organization said that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) lost a trillion dollars in lost revenue during the last crisis in 2015 and 2016. With the Corona virus crisis hitting the oil industry much more than the 2014-2016 crisis chances are that the losses incurred by OPEC producers last year may be greater than a trillion dollars, but these losses are still calculated.

He added that in OPEC, they were astonished by the occurrence of things that they did not imagine were possible. On April 20, 2020, WTI fell for the first time in history to the negative range, as prices fell to -37 dollars per barrel.

One factor, along with a rapid recovery in oil demand in China, was the historic OPEC agreement to control oil production, which halted the freefall of oil prices last year and helped reduce excessive global oil inventories, and now, is driving prices to two-year highs.

OPEC is now easing the cuts it agreed to last year, which will add about two million barrels per day to global supply. However, traders are not worried: demand is improving faster than most forecasts. What is more, despite previous expectations that it may never recover to pre-pandemic levels, the International Energy Agency is now seeing oil demand return to those levels within a year.

It is not yet seen how much money OPEC has lost in lost revenue from the pandemic crisis, but the amount will certainly be significant.

During the last hour, US crude prices rose significantly to return higher than levels of 69.50$ a barrel, while Brent crude rose to levels of 71.66$ a barrel, in the wake of statements by the Iranian Oil Minister to Iranian state media, that the country decided not to increase oil production despite Iran's economic outlook improves, and the comments came shortly after the minister announced that Iran may raise oil production to 6.5 million barrels per day.

Iran currently pumps about 2.5 million barrels per day and last produced close to 6 million barrels per day in the early 1970s.

Nuclear deal talks continue between the United States and Iran, with the prospect of a deal weighing on oil this week after last week, with oil prices posting their best performance in two years, with Brent crude above $72 a barrel and WTI reaching $70 a barrel.

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