Oil is poised for a strong start this week after both US and international futures ended last week on a high note, buoyed by production cuts from Opec+ and reviving demand from the easing of lockdown measures.
Opec+, along with producers from other G20 nations, began cutting production this month to rebalance oil markets plagued by a fall in demand and limited storage.
Brent, the most widely-traded crude benchmark, closed at $30.97 per barrel gaining 17 per cent over the course of last week. West Texas Intermediate, the main US gauge, rounded off a weekly gain of 25 per cent to settle at $24.74 per barrel.
While April saw a record fall in demand as populations remained in lockdown, the second quarter of 2020 is expected to see the largest volume of production cuts in the history of the oil industry, according to consultancy IHS Markit. This will include shut-ins of production.
Around 17 million barrels per day of liquids production, including 14m bpd of crude, is expected to be shut in between April and June this year, according to the consultancy.
“The Great Shut-In, a rapid and brutal adjustment of global oil supply to a lower level of demand, is underway," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.
"All producing countries are subject to the same brutal market forces. Some will be impacted more than others. But there is nowhere to hide," he said.
Opec+ will cut 9.7m bpd in May and June and will enforce tapered cuts until 2022. G20 members including the US, the world's largest producer of oil and gas, will make voluntary adjustments.
Already, the US shale belt has begun to trim production, forced by tightening capacity constraints that led to front-month WTI contract prices turning negative for the first time last month.
Oil demand for the second quarter will continue to languish, however, averaging 22m bpd less than a year ago, IHS noted.
“When it comes to the where, why and how of production cuts, the wide range of technical, logistical, regulatory, contractual, and financial conditions means there is no single set of answers," said Paul Markwell, vice president, global upstream oil and gas at IHS Markit.
"But under these market conditions, it is pretty clear where production will be cut. Nearly everywhere," he added.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
