Eppo: Oil prices likely to stay low
text size

Eppo: Oil prices likely to stay low

The Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo) estimates that global oil prices will stay low, even though major oil producers agreed to cut production last week.

Opec and non-Opec nations reached an agreement to cut crude oil production from May to June by 10 million barrels per day, or a 10% reduction of global oil supply, then cut 8 million bpd from July to December.

Oil producers also plan to cut 6 million bpd from 2021 to April 2022.

The majority of the reduction will come from Saudi Arabia and Russia, which agreed to cuts of 2.5 million bpd each.

Director-general Wattanapong Kurovat said Eppo and global oil trader Trafigura reckon that oil demand has significantly dropped from normal consumption of about 100 million bpd to 66 million bpd.

The drop in demand is primarily due to many nations locking down air and land traffic in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The US's Energy Information Administration said recently that US oil production was cut to 11.76 million bpd from 12.99 million bpd earlier this year.

Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes reported that oil platform production last Thursday in the US was down by 58 units to 504, the lowest since December 2016.

Mr Wattanapong said petrol prices on Platts and the Asia refined oil reference market rose after the agreement by US$0.90-1.14 per barrel to $21.77-21.28. High-speed diesel rose by $0.39 per barrel.

Singapore's refined oil export volume fell to 2.23 million bpd, down 53% from a week earlier.

The baht rose by 0.03 to 32.97 against the US dollar, causing oil imports to rise slightly.

Mr Wattanapong said the domestic retail oil price is down 5-6 baht per litre since early March as many people work from home and no longer commute, while many are staying indoors to prevent the spread of the virus.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (2)