No end in sight for meltdown as oil plunges 24% in a day

New York — Oil is ensnared in such as crisis that Wednesday’s 24% plunge in New York wasn’t even its worst day in March.

Futures are now at the lowest level in almost two decades after Saudi Arabia signalled it’s doubling down on a price war with Russia just as demand evaporates. Prices dropped below $25 a barrel for the first time since 2003 in London and tumbled 24% in New York as the kingdom vowed to keep producing at a record high “over the coming months”.

For the past 10 days, Riyadh has issued nearly daily statements raising the stakes in its shock-and-awe battle with Moscow, first announcing huge price discounts and output.

The kingdom is now pledging to pump flat out for months to come, and prices are in free fall. Oil is now down over 45% since failed talks between members of the Opec+ alliance to further cut output and tackle the demand fallout from the virus outbreak.

“What we are seeing here is essentially the atomic bomb equivalent in the oil markets,” said Louise Dickson, an analyst at Rystad Energy. “With each day there seems to be yet another trap door lying beneath oil prices, and we expect to see prices continue to roil until a cost equilibrium is reached and production is shut in.”

Riyadh appears to be heading to a Darwinian survival of the fittest for the energy industry, in which the highest cost producers, including US shale companies and others working Brazil’s offshore fields, will suffer enormously. The Saudi ministry of energy “directed Saudi Aramco to continue to supply crude oil at a level of 12.3-million barrels a day over the coming months”, according to a statement.

Russia so far has suggested it’s prepared to absorb the pain, although for the first time on Wednesday the Kremlin said it would prefer higher prices. Yet, few in the oil market see either Moscow or Riyadh taking a U-turn.

Saudi Arabia “wants to keep the pressure high”, said UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo. “It seems to me they want to trigger so much pain to Russia and the other producers, to eventually have a new production deal at a later stage. That policy might create a lot damage in between.”

Brent futures declined 10% to settle at $24.88 a barrel, the lowest since 2003. West Texas Intermediate futures in New York fell 24% to settle at $20.37 a barrel, the lowest since February 2002. It had fallen almost 25% on March 9.

Oil is now cheaper than any time during the global financial crisis, when the world economy largely came to a halt for a few days. Demand is in free fall, with some traders saying it could drop by more than 10% compared with 2019.

In the physical market, the pain is enormous. The Mexican oil basket, which measures the price the country secures selling its crude overseas, fell to $18.78 a barrel on Monday. In Canada, the benchmark crude price for tar-sands producers, known as Western Canadian Select, plunged to $7.47 a barrel.