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2020.02.2819:16:00UTC+00Oil Prices Crash Again On Virus Jitters, Settle At 14-month Low

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday, extending recent losses, as growing concerns about energy demand due to the impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus on the global economy weighed on the commodity once again.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down $2.33, or about 5%, at $44.76 a barrel, the lowest settlement since end December 2018.

On Thursday, WTI crude oil futures ended down $1.64, or 3.4%, at $47.09 a barrel.

WTI crude oil futures lost nearly 16% this week, the biggest weekly decline in more than 12 years.

In the month of February 2020, oil futures lost about 13%.

Brent crude futures declined by about 3.2% to $50.75 a barrel, the lowest in about fourteen months.

OPEC and allies are scheduled to meet next week, March 5-6, to consider deepening production cuts to support prices. Currently, the group is producing 1.7 million barrels less per day.

According to the Production Supply Monthly report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. oil output fell to 12.78 million barrels per day in December from 12.86 million barrels per day a month earlier.

But then, weekly oil reports from EIA since January this year, have showed a jump in crude production in the U.S, with output rising to a record 13 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, in news about the coronavirus outbreak, New Zealand and Nigeria have confirmed their first coronavirus cases. The World Health Organization has warned that the fast-spreading disease could soon reach most, "if not all" countries around the world.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said the organization has raised its assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of the coronavirus to "very high."

In addition to the confirmed cases in new countries, the number of cases in countries like China, South Korea and Iran continue to rise.

According to reports, officials in the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, declared a state of emergency because of the pace of new infections there. South Korean officials are said to be rushing to test thousands of members of a church at the center of that country's outbreak.

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