Oil prices are preparing to end an epic year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic on a positive note. Soaring, discord, panic, vaccine and understanding, a look back over the past twelve months in five key dates.

- January 3, the flight -

The prices of the two crude benchmarks, US WTI and European Brent, started the year with a sudden price surge triggered by the assassination in Baghdad of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US raid on January 3.

Iranian missile strikes against two Iraqi bases housing US soldiers in retaliation a few days later, on January 8, push WTI to $65.65 and Brent to $71.75, prices that will ultimately be their highest. highs of the year.

Renewed tensions in the Middle East generally send oil markets into a panic, as investors fear an escalation in the region that could lead to a disruption in the supply of black gold around the world.

- March 6, discord -

After a slow descent towards $50 a barrel as the Covid-19 epidemic became a pandemic, WTI and Brent stumbled for the first time on March 6 at the end of the first annual producer cartel summit, made up of the thirteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their ten OPEC+ allies.

This interdepartmental meeting, held at the cartel's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, ends in a brief but intense price war between the two heavyweights of the alliance, Russia and Saudi Arabia, respectively second and third. global producers.

The patching up a month later and the historic cuts in black gold production were not immediately enough to stem the fall in prices, which continued their spectacular descent.

- April 20, the panic -

April 20, 2020 will remain etched in the memory of investors: for the first time in its history, the price of WTI goes into negative territory and is trading below zero dollars.

The US benchmark will drop to -40.32 dollars on April 20 as investors are forced to pay to get rid of their barrels, stuck with the lack of buyers and an inability to take delivery and store them.

Brent crude hit its lowest point of the year two days later, at 15.98 dollars a barrel, a price not seen for more than twenty years, in June 1999.

- November 9, the vaccine -

The announcement by the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories of a vaccine against Covid-19 "90% effective" caused oil prices to jump on November 9, thanks to the hope of a recovery in demand for black gold that they revive.

In the weeks that followed, similar announcements from the American biotechnology company Moderna and then from the British laboratory AstraZeneca associated with the University of Oxford consolidated the momentum of the courses.

The prices of the two benchmark contracts finally appreciated by more than 25% in November and returned to the waters of 50 dollars a barrel in which they were sailing nine months earlier, on the eve of the fiasco of the OPEC+ summit in March.

- December 3, the agreement -

After four days of tough negotiations, the OPEC+ producing countries agreed on December 3 on a cautious increase in their production for the start of 2021, saying they were attentive to a demand that is picking up less quickly due to a second wave of Covid-19.

This decision was welcomed by the market and allowed Brent and WTI to remain around 50 dollars per barrel at the end of the year.

The members of the cartel and their allies represent around half of the world's supply, in a market still dominated by the United States, the world's largest producer and consumer.