Mideast oil producers brace for impact of price slide
The global coronavirus outbreak and falling oil prices could spell a massive economic slowdown for oil-producing countries in the Middle East.
Amid the coronavirus panic and plunging oil prices, fears are mounting of an economic slowdown in the Middle East’s main oil-producing countries.
The price of Brent crude oil dropped nearly 30% Monday in its biggest one-day fall since the Gulf war in 1991. The tanking oil prices followed a breakdown in talks between Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest oil producer, and Russia.
On Sunday, the kingdom announced a deep discount in its export prices in apparent retaliation for Moscow’s unwillingness to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a large production cut meant to offset the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
The ensuing price collapse comes as the region is still reeling from the spread of the novel coronavirus, also known as Covid-19. More than 116,000 people have contracted the illness in over 80 countries, according to Johns Hopkins University. Of the more than 4,000 recorded deaths, the majority have occured in mainland China.
