Oil falls on Covid-19 spread and Opec+ not in agreement over cuts

London — Oil fell on Thursday as worries intensified over the fast-spreading coronavirus and oil cartel Opec ministers met in Vienna to seek Russian backing for deeper output cuts to bolster prices.

Brent crude fell by 37c, or 0.7%, to $50.76 a barrel by 10.15am GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down by 33c, or 0.7%, at $46.45 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia wants Opec and its allies (Opec+), to cut output by between 1-million and 1.5-million barrels per day (bpd) for the second quarter and to keep existing cuts in place until the end of 2020.

However, Russia has indicated it would back an extension, not a deeper cut.

“An agreement to reduce the Opec+ group output level by at least 1-million bpd is imperative, otherwise oil prices will revisit the recent lows and possibly break below them,” said oil broker PVM’s Tamas Varga.