THE BIG GAIN
March 9 was crude oil’s Black Monday as Saudi Arabia upped the ante when Russia refused to reduce oil production as global oil demand fell with the coronavirus outbreak. It led to the steepest fall in crude oil prices – it crashed $14.25, down 31.5 per cent – to $31.02 a barrel. That’s been the sharpest fall in crude oil prices since the start of the 1991 Gulf War.
The three-year pact between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, called OPEC+, became invalid after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts. At $30 per barrel, crude oil is now priced at nearly half the average global benchmark price of
