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Oil prices sank for a sixth consecutive day early on Friday and were on track for their biggest weekly drop in more than four years as the coronavirus outbreak continues to roil global equity and oil markets. At 10:53 a.m. EST on Friday, WTI Crude was plunging by 5.92 percent at $44.30, and Brent Crude was down 4.58 percent at $49.36, after falling briefly below $50 earlier today. The sell-off on the oil market has continued for more than a week as the coronavirus spread quickly outside China—to Europe, the Middle East, and as of recently—Africa.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, oil prices have lost more than 10 percent, and are now at their lowest levels since early October 2019. Even with Libya’s oil production plummeting by nearly 1 million barrels per day (bpd) due to the port blockade by forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar, oil prices have seen downward pressure over the past week and a half as fears of oil demand destruction currently outweigh supply outages.

The world’s largest independent commodity trader, Vitol, expects global oil demand to peak after 15 years, essentially putting the ‘peak oil demand’ date somewhere in the mid-2030s like other key players in the oil industry. “We anticipate that oil demand will continue to grow for the next 15 years, even with a marked increase in the sales of electric vehicles, but that demand growth will begin to be impacted thereafter,” Vitol said in the outlook included in its 2018 trading volumes report.

It’s been a month now that investors and analysts have been closely watching two main drivers for oil prices: how OPEC is doing with the supply-cut deal, and how U.S. shale is responding to fifty-plus-dollar oil with rebounding drilling activity. Those two main factors are largely neutralizing each other, and are putting a floor and a cap to a price range of between $50 and $60. The U.S. rig count has been rising, while OPEC seems unfazed by the resurgence in North American shale activity and is trying to convince the market (and itself) and prove that it would be...

Demand growth in the oil markets will be more subdued than previously expected, according to the International Energy Agency, which has once again downgraded its projections for the rest of the year. "The recent slowdown in demand growth is nothing short of remarkable," the IEA said in a new monthly report on Thursday morning. "While demand growth is still expected to gain momentum, the expected pace of recovery is now looking somewhat more subdued." Additionally, global oil demand growth for has been lowered to 900,000 million b/d in 2014 and 1.2 million b/d for 2015. The pronounced slowdown in demand...

EIA: Global oil demand to rise 1.2 million b/d in 2014 01/13/2014 Global liquid fuels consumption is forecast to increase by 1.2 million b/d in 2014 and by another 1.4 million b/d in 2015, according to the US Energy Information Administration's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released this month. Countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, led by China, account for nearly all consumption growth over the forecast period, EIA said. OECD consumption is expected to decline by 0.1 million b/d in 2014 and remain flat in 2015. EIA forecasts OPEC crude oil production to decline by 0.5...

U.S. Demand For Oil Rose 4-5 Percent In 2013, Startling Analysts   By John Voelcker 963 views Jan 23, 2014 23 Comments Oil well (photo by John Hill) With increasing energy efficiency in cars, homes, and industry, plus a surge in domestic natural-gas production, U.S. demand for oil is widely said to have tapered off and in fact begun a structural decline.Except that, as it turns out, last year it seems U.S. demand for oil actually rose by 390,000 barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency.That represented fully one-third of the total global increase in demand.An article in...

US Sept oil demand declines 1.5 pct vs yr ago-EIA Wednesday October 8, 2:37 pm ET WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - U.S. demand for crude oil and refined petroleum products in September decreased 1.5 percent from a year earlier, the government said on Wednesday. Oil demand last month dropped 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 19.2 million bpd from the year before and was 1.2 million bpd less than August, according to preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration. However, petroleum demand during the first nine months of this year has averaged 19.9 million bpd, up 200,000 bpd, or 1...