As OPEC+ Reels From China Virus, Libya Threatens Knockout Punch
- Peace talks on Sunday aim to restart Libya’s oil industry
- Cartel is already struggling to find a response to epidemic
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After a week of wrestling, OPEC and Russia may be within reach of a hesitant response to the coronavirus. But a possible peace deal in Libya threatens to knock them off balance.
As the deadly epidemic in China has hammered crude demand and prices, it’s often been overlooked that the sudden surplus in global production would be much worse if most of the North African nation’s oil industry hadn’t been shut down by conflict. If the warring sides are able to reach an agreement in Cairo on Sunday, the restored oil output would dwarf the tentative production cut that was proposed at OPEC+ talks this week.