Texas oil falls 2.2% after the first local spread of coronavirus in the US

The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) closed on Thursday with a drop of 2.2% and stood at $ 52.14 a barrel after the US health authorities confirm the first case of local infection of Wuhan coronavirus in the country.

At the end of the live operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in March subtracted $ 1.19 from Wednesday’s previous session.

WTI oil prices fell once again, as in seven of the last eight sessions, due to fear of the effects of the coronavirus on the global economy and fuel demand, which has declined significantly in the Asian continent .

This decrease is attributable to China’s decision to isolate millions of citizens from the Hubei region and to the recommendations of countries such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom not to travel to the Asian country unless strictly necessary, which has caused numerous Flight cancellations due to low demand.

Likewise, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Thursday the international emergency due to the rapid increase in patients affected by the Wuhan coronavirus, and more than 8,000 in about twenty countries and that has caused at least 171 deaths.

For now, analysts say that the coronavirus is the main engine of the oil markets at this time and the only thing that could change its impact on prices is an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to extend its cut in production.

In this regard, Mohamed Arkab, Minister of Energy of Algeria, a member state of OPEC, said that the meeting scheduled for March could go ahead to February in view of the events.

Likewise, high US inventories have also forced the price of Texan crude down.

In this context, gasoline futures contracts expiring in March subtracted three cents, up to $ 1.51 a gallon, and natural gas contracts, expiring the same month, subtracted four cents, up to $ 1.83 for each thousand cubic feet.