Urals crude, Russia’s export blend, is now trading firmly below $20 a barrel, a level which could equate to a budget deficit of 2% of gross domestic product this year,

Saudi Arabia is following through on its threat to flood the market, after Russia last month rejected a Saudi-led OPEC proposal for significant production cuts to backstop already sliding oil prices from the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the global economy.

Podcast/Audio - US lawmakers from oil-producing states are trying to increase pressure on the White House to do something to help drillers getting hammered by plummeting prices -- from aggressive diplomacy to banning crude imports.

A group of six U.S. senators wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week saying Saudi Arabia and Russia “have embarked upon economic warfare against the United States” and were threatening U.S. “energy dominance”.

Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian counterpart Alexander Novak have not held any discussions about a joint agreement to balance oil markets, indicating no resolution to the price war.

Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa region will lose $192 billion in crude income in 2020

Some US shale producers have been pressuring the Trump administration to intervene in the price war, which broke out after Russia earlier this month declined to go along with an OPEC proposal for production cuts to prop up prices.

China is saving about $250mn a day after crude prices crashed this year amid dual demand and supply shocks.

nine Republican senators asked the Department of Commerce to launch an anti-dumping case against Saudi Arabia following its price war with Russia.

Aramco has pledged to supply 12.3 million b/d of crude in April and May