Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday, and US crude futures fell to the lowest level in 18 years, while Brent crude reached its lowest level in 16 years. >
According to Reuters, Brent crude was trading down $ 2.68, or 9.3 percent, at $ 26.05 a barrel after falling to $ 26.65, the lowest level since 2003.
By 1508 GMT, US crude fell four dollars, or 15 percent, to $ 22.95 a barrel. At the lowest level in the session, it recorded the lowest price since March 2002.
Goldman Sachs said pauses to tackle the Corona virus had increased the chances of the largest ever annual decline in oil demand.
Goldman Sachs said the collapse in oil demand due to the spread of the Corona virus is increasingly severe, expecting the price of crude to drop to $ 20 a barrel in the second quarter.
And the previous time that oil was traded from those low levels when China was in the process of starting its rise as a global economic superpower, which pushed global oil consumption to record highs later.
Goldman Sachs said in a report on Wednesday that the contracts of both crude were on the way to a seasonal decline of about 60 percent, the largest loss since at least the eighties of the last century.
Demand is beginning to be affected by official statistics, as the Japanese Trade Bureau said on Wednesday that crude imports in the world's third largest economy fell 9 percent in February, compared to the same month a year ago.
