Crude oil prices to remain choppy in the near term

Crude posted its biggest weekly decline with moves extending a week of wild swings for oil. The US crude slid below $30, continuing the previous week’s rout as there seems to be no resolution to the war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Saudi Arabia reported that it would ramp up output and slash prices with the week experiencing four days of massive selling. The selloff was followed by a market rebound when US crude posted its largest one-day gain in history after the U.S. reported that an envoy would head to Saudi Arabia to deal with fallout of a Saudi-Russia oil price war. Oil markets are faced with a triple and not double whammy–Texas, Russia and OPEC. Russia will not blink in its game with Saudi Arabia. Texas is getting a seat at the next OPEC meeting. The week’s drama in oil ranged from a battle of wits with WTI losing half its value in the past two weeks. Brent has dropped about 40% as the pandemic has cut demand at the same time as the collapse of coordinated output cuts by OPEC and Russia.