The world is facing the threat of a new global oil crisis due to frost that hit the US state of Texas. As a result of the bad weather, US oil production fell by 4 million barrels a day, or about 40 percent. Bloomberg reports this with reference to analysts and traders.
“The world underestimates how much oil the market has lost due to bad weather in Texas,” said Ben Luckock, oil trading co-head of Trafigura Group. If at first traders thought that the reduction in the production of raw materials in the United States would not last more than two or three days, now they consider it unlikely that production will resume before the weekend. The full recovery of production may even take several weeks.
Texas in February 2021 was hit by the worst frosts in more than 30 years. This led not only to a decrease in oil production, but also to an energy and transport collapse. Millions of citizens were left without electricity and heating.
The price of Brent crude oil on February 18 rose above $ 65 per barrel, which was the highest indicator in more than a year. The head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, announced overheating in the oil market. According to him, in the long term, the raw material will cost $ 45 per barrel. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak believes that in 2021 oil will cost from $ 45 to $ 60 per barrel.