Oil drops from 3-week high on fears over coronavirus spread outside China

Oil prices fell in European trade on Friday, falling further from the three-week high hit yesterday on profit taking, in addition to escalating fears over the coronavirus in China and its impact global demand. While Russia announced that only planned OPEC-Plus meetings will be held in March.

US crude fell to $53.09 a barrel, after opening at $53.72, and Brent crude fell tp $58.34, after opening at $59.02.

The US crude gained 0.3% yesterday, posting its second straight daily gain and its 3-week high of $54.45, and Brent crude futures fell 0.4%, the first daily loss in 8 days on profit-taking from a three-week high of $59.98.

South Korea revealed today 52 new infected cases of coronavirus, to a total of 156, and the authorities described it as widespread.

This escalated market's fears over the coronavirus impact on global demand for oil in China and outside it.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) last week lowered its forecasts for global oil demand by 435,000 barrels per day during the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, in the first quarterly drop since the global financial crisis in 2009.

The Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, said yesterday that global oil producers understood that it would now no longer make sense for OPEC Plus coalition to hold any meeting before their planned in early March.

The US Energy Information Administration revealed that the US oil inventories roe about 400 thouthan barrels, but fell short of expectations for 3.3 million to a total of 443.3 million barrels, and production remained at its all-time high of 13.0 million barrels per day.