Weekly crude oil prices for Brent, OPEC basket, and WTI 2019-2021
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in crude oil prices hitting a major slump. On January 11, the OPEC basket stood at 54.76 U.S. dollars per barrel, compared to 55.66 U.S. dollars for Brent oil and 52.25 U.S. dollars for WTI oil. Europe's Brent crude oil, the U.S. WTI crude oil, and OPEC's reference basket are three of the most important benchmarks used by traders as reference for oil and gasoline prices. Despite many countries recording highest ever infection rates, hopes for the quick distribution of promising vaccinations have resulted in the Brent crude and OPEC basket reaching above 50 U.S. dollars per barrel in late December 2020.
As the price per barrel continues to see only slight increases, industry experts have estimated that oil demand may take until 2022 to see a full recovery.
Lowest ever oil prices
Oil demand drastically declined following lockdowns and travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Initial outlooks and uncertainty surrounding the course of the pandemic led to a disagreement between two of the largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia in early March. Bilateral talks between global oil producers ended in agreement on April 13th, with promises to cut petroleum output and hopes rising that these might help stabilize the oil price in the coming weeks. However, with storage facilities and oil tankers quickly filling up, fears grew over where to store excess oil, leading to benchmark prices seeing record negative prices between April 20 and April 22.As the price per barrel continues to see only slight increases, industry experts have estimated that oil demand may take until 2022 to see a full recovery.
