Oil prices claw back ground after crash

March 10, 2020: Oil prices were up more than three percent in Asian trade Tuesday following heavy losses a day earlier after top exporter Saudi Arabia fired the opening salvo in a price war with Russia.

Both main contracts initially jumped more than four percent at the open, before falling back slightly.

West Texas Intermediate was trading up 3.4 percent at about $32 a barrel while Brent crude advanced 3.7 percent to around $35 a barrel.

Prices had plunged by almost a third Monday, the biggest drop since the 1991 Gulf War, after Riyadh drove through the biggest cuts to prices in 20 years in a bid to win market share.

This came after Russia rejected calls from oil-exporting group OPEC, which includes Saudi Arabia, for deeper output cuts to combat a coronavirus-fuelled slump in demand.

The bust-up signals the disintegration of an alliance between OPEC and Russia, the world's second-biggest oil producer, which sought to control supply to support prices.

AFP/APP