I Prayed have prayed
Father God, we are seeing the impact of the coronavirus in so many different ways. We put our trust in You and look to You for answers.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Saudi Arabia has fired the first salvo in an oil price war, slashing crude prices after OPEC’s supply pact with Russia collapsed March 6 in bitter acrimony.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco said in a statement March 7 that it was cutting its official selling price (OSP) for April for all its crude grades to all destinations, amounting to unprecedented discounts of nearly 20 percent in key markets.

Pray strategically about the spiritual impact of the coronavirus with our prayer guide:
Dismantling the Spirits Behind the Coronavirus. Click to download.

The move is an overt bid to wrest market share away from Moscow, Saudi officials told The Wall Street Journal, after talks between Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed to agree on production cuts amid a coronavirus-driven collapse in oil demand.

“It’s time for a good old-fashioned bloodbath, for which Russia deserves all the blame,” said Matt Reed, vice president at energy consultancy Foreign Reports, according to Foreign Policy.

While cheaper oil will translate into more affordable energy for consumers and businesses, it hurts producing countries and companies.

Citing Saudi officials and OPEC delegates, the WSJ reported that besides the price cuts, the kingdom was also planning to boost output to some 10 million barrels per day, placing further downward pressure on prices. After OPEC and Russia failed to agree on supply cuts on March 6, oil prices plummeted roughly 10 percent in international markets, falling the most since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The U.S. oil patch has already been shedding thousands of jobs and suffering through a surge of bankruptcies, and lower prices will exacerbate those problems.

Meanwhile, all major markets in the Middle East plummeted March 8 as investors weighed the impacts of an all-out price war.

Markets “are finding it difficult to cope with all these variables that have been happening over the past 10 days,” said Mohammed Ali Yasin, chief strategy officer at Al Dhabi Capital Ltd., in remarks to Bloomberg. “That’s why we see this panic-selling across the board taking certain markets to lows not seen even during the financial crisis.”

The spread of the new coronavirus has sharply reduced air travel and thus the demand for fuel, while industry in China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been severely disrupted through shutdowns and travel restrictions. . . .

Russia can tolerate low oil prices better than Saudi Arabia can and appears reluctant to slash output of its main revenue-making export.

While Saudi Arabia can produce oil cheaply, it needs $83.60 per barrel to balance its state budget, according to the International Monetary Fund, as it is almost exclusively dependent on oil revenue. Russia needs only $42.40 a barrel.

OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo of Nigeria said March 6 that the meeting had been adjourned in what he called a “painful decision.”

“At the end of the day, there was the general painful decision of the joint conference to adjourn the meeting,” Barkindo said. He said informal talks would continue because the situation was urgent.

“The numbers are clear: The demand destruction is real,” he added.

Comments (0) Print

Comments

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.

No comments have been posted yet; you can be the first!

Partner with Us

Intercessors for America is the trusted resource for millions of people across the United States committed to praying for our nation. If you have benefited from IFA's resources and community, please consider joining us as a monthly support partner. As a 501(c)3 organization, it's through your support that all this possible.

Dave Kubal
IFA President
Become a Monthly Partner

Share

Click below to share this with others

Log in to Join the Conversation

Log in to your IFA account to start a discussion, comment, pray, and interact with our community.