Brent plumbs 4-year low after ​OPEC-Plus cancels technical committee meeting

Brent crude prices deepen losses as the US market opened today, to hit a 4-year low, this came after OPEC-Plus technical committee canceled its meeting that was scheduled on Wednesday in Vienna, which escalated market's concerns over the global oil prices collapse.

Brent crude fell to $30.04 a barrel, its lowest since Feb. 2016, after it opened at $35.06, and earlier hit today's high at $35.06.

Brent crude futures gained 6.1% on Friday, to post the first daily gain in 3 days, within a breather.

Brent shed 23.75% during the past week, to suffer its largest weekly loss since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The biggest weekly loss in almost 12 years came due to escalating concerns over a record surplus in the market, after the collapse of the OPEC-Plus collation, and the large producers increasing their production, while global demand is dropping due to the coronavirus impact.

Reuters quoted a source today that the meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that was scheduled on Wednesday in Vienna got canceled.

The OPEC-Plus agreement to cut production will expire at March 6, and the collation failed to reach a new agreement to deepen the cut agreement.

The coronavirus is still spreading in most of the world, especially in Europe, which the World Health Organization has described as a global epidemic center for coronavirus.

Global governments are struggling to contain the pandemic, which led to tougher restrictions on flights and borders that caused damage to the global economy, and weighed down on fuel demand.

The global demand for oil is expected to drop in the short-term to record lows, which were not seen since the peak of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Goldman Sachs Group said that the global surplus will reach a record of about 6 million bpd by next April, based on Saudi Arabia's decision to increase production and its price war with Russia.