The General Secretariat of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) said that the pandemic of the emerging corona virus (Covid 19) has caused a large and unique shock to the global economy that has not been witnessed Same for decades.

and (OAPEC) said in its monthly bulletin issued yesterday, Sunday, that the world's governments were forced to impose restrictions on travel and take isolation measures to confront this pandemic, as their economies were completely closed, which affected Significantly, in all aspects of life, including global energy markets, which witnessed a sharp decline in demand and then a decline in oil and gas prices.

and stated that the negative impact of (Corona) extended to the entire energy industry supply chains, as a number of major global energy companies announced their intention to reduce production and reconsider their capital spending plans On the new projects against the background of the sharp decline in profits.

She added that the pandemic forced many small energy companies to stop their work in light of the worsening of their debts, explaining that global oil demand declined during the first quarter of 2020 and continued to decline in a record It reached about 10.8 million barrels per day during the second quarter before starting to recover at the beginning of the third quarter of the year, coinciding with the easing of restrictions imposed and the start of the resumption of economic activity in many countries of the world.

and stated that the initial forecasts of the Organization (OPEC) indicate, in general, a decrease in global oil demand by about 9.1 million barrels per day in 2020 compared to the previous year, to reach 90.6 million barrels Daily indicating that this annual decline is the largest on record and the first since 2009.

and indicated that this had a negative impact on global crude oil prices. In the spot markets, the price of OPEC's basket of crudes collapsed during the month of April 2020 to its lowest level since December 2002.

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and she pointed out that in the futures markets, Brent crude contracts fell to their lowest levels since 2002, while crude contracts (West Texas) collapsed to negative, the lowest level ever. .

She added that as a result of these data, the (OPEC +) countries reached a historic agreement regarding a gradual reduction in production levels, starting from May 1, 2020 by 9.7 million barrels Daily and ending in April 2022 at 5.8 million barrels per day.

and explained that with the start of the implementation of this agreement, crude oil prices witnessed a relative improvement, supported by the decline in concerns about the oversupply of oil and coincided with the implementation of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE additional and voluntary production cuts during June 2020 along with hopes for a recovery in demand.

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