Both Brent and US crude benchmarks settled down around 13 percent.
Highlights
- Both Brent and US crude benchmarks settled down around 13 percent in their biggest weekly falls in two years.
- US President Joe Biden announced the release of one million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for six months from May, which at 180 million barrels is the largest release ever from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Member countries of the IEA did not agree on volumes or commitments of each country at their emergency meeting.
- China’s commercial hub of Shanghai ground to a halt on Friday after the government locked down most of the city’s 26 million residents, aiming to stop the spread of COVID-19.
- JPMorgan kept its price forecasts unchanged at $114 a barrel for the second quarter.