TEHRAN,Iran, May 8
Trend:
Manufacturing of oil products in Iran's refineries got affected by coronavirus, secretary of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union Hamid Hosseini told Trend.
"The predictions indicate the surplus oil will remain in the market the next two months until the quarantine is over," he said.
"The gasoline consumption in the world has reduced, since people are in quarantine, there's no demand for aviation fuel, so many refineries have no production, which includes Iran's refineries as well," said Hosseini.
"Altough the market will have some 19.5 million barrels of oil less next month, the OPEC and non-OPEC members will remain committed to the reduced output," he added.
"After two months, the market will be balanced and the prices will return back to $30 a barrel," Hosseini said. "However the presumption that the oil price would return to $50 is unlikely."
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.