More than 50,000 workers blocked the centre of Comodoro Rivadavia, in Argentina's Patagonia main oil-producing region in a protest against layoffs. Striking oil workers were joined by teachers, truck drivers, builders and other sectors in the demonstration.
The meeting of the world's leading oil exporters to discuss capping production has ended without agreement. After hours of talks in Qatar, the country's energy minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said that the oil producers needed more time.
Four of the world's biggest oil-producing nations moved to freeze their production on Tuesday to try to halt the 70 percent drop in the price of crude because of a glut of oil on world markets. The agreement was reached by the oil ministers of Russia and three members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar, during a closed-door meeting in Doha, the Qatar capital.
As anticipated by the Federal Reserve's report earlier this week, US economic growth braked sharply in the fourth quarter as businesses stepped up efforts to reduce an inventory glut and a strong dollar and tepid global demand weighed on exports.
The World Bank is lowering its 2016 forecast for crude oil prices to $37 per barrel in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook report from $51 per barrel in its October projections.
Ecuador President Rafael Correa said that his government was “tired” of pushing OPEC to decrease output and that the nation would keep working as if the oil cartel “did not exist.”
United States crude futures fell sharply on Friday plunging below $36 a barrel for the first time in more than seven years, after a bearish report from the International Energy Agency projected that global energy markets will remain vastly oversupplied for at least the immediate near future.
Oil prices slid on Tuesday, approaching seven-year low points on a global supply glut and weak demand growth. Crude futures had already slumped Monday after the OPEC oil producers cartel last week refused to slash record high output, in a market dogged by oversupply.
Crude oil just capped off a third straight week of declines, as WTI nears the $40 per barrel threshold. Goldman Sachs is once again raising the possibility of oil dipping into the $20s per barrel. That spells more pain for the energy sector. Many companies have already slashed spending and culled their payrolls, but the total number of job losses continues to climb.
A slowdown in China, which gobbled up raw materials everywhere from Australia to Chile, exacerbated a supply glut in most major commodities. And Goldman Sachs thinks the pressure is likely to persist as it noted its underweight position in commodities for the next 12 months.