Coronavirus is a major catalyst for crude oil price fluctuations – Petrochemical expert

• Dr Sulemana has stated that the factors accounting for fluctuations in crude oil prices are as a result of low demand and excess supply

• He said the downstream and upstream industries were badly affected by the pandemic

• He also April 20, 2020, was like a black day for the oil industry since the pandemic caused a collapse in prices

Prices of crude oil over the past few months keep fluctuating, and industry players blame the pandemic for these fluctuations.

Dr Yussif Sulemana, a Petrochemical engineer, based in Oman, has stated that the factors accounting for these fluctuations could be attributed to the fact that supply was more than demand last year due to the pandemic so there was excess crude which was wasted.

Speaking in a Zoom interview with GhanaWeb’s Amos Ekow Coffie, Dr Sulemana said the downstream and upstream industries were badly affected by the pandemic as well and this could be the reason for the fluctuations.

“April 20, 2020, was like a black day for the oil industry and the reason why I am saying it was one of the darkest days is; oil price collapsed phenomenally and the factors that caused the collapse are still in there and this is as a result of oversupply that demand could not meet and that actually was exacerbated by the pandemic. So, the fact that we had the pandemic that came around the same time caused the oil price to collapse,”

“This threatened a lot of investors both in the downstream and the upstream, so OPEC and OPEC+ decided to cut supply to be able to meet demand, demand was simply not there, people were not there to consume the oil,” he said.

Watch the full interview below