Oil prices fell significantly on Tuesday as fears of weaker demand gripped the market.
The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery shed 2.30 U.S. dollars to settle at 20.11 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery decreased 2.14 dollars to close at 29.60 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Investors continued to worry about a demand hit due to travel restrictions and trade disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported globally, with 125,196 deaths, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Experts warned of a potential global supply glut of crude despite the OPEC+'s historic production cuts.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed on Sunday to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June after four days of talks.
According to an OPEC statement on the deal, from July through the end of 2020, the cut will decrease to 7.7 million bpd, and will then be followed by an adjustment of 5.8 million bpd for another 16 months till the end of April 2022.
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