U.S. oil plunges 25%, Brent falls below $20 a barrel - Reuters

U.S. oil plunges 25%, Brent falls below $20 a barrel - Reuters:

Brent crude fell below $20 a barrel and U.S. crude plunged 25% on Monday, driven lower by skittish investors fleeing the U.S. benchmark due to lack of available storage to deal with a coronavirus-induced collapse in demand.

Even as governments worldwide are taking tentative steps towards reducing restriction on movement to help economies rebound, fuel demand remains weak.

Fuel demand is down 30% globally, and storage is becoming precious, with roughly 85% of worldwide onshore storage full as of last week, according to Kpler data.

Economic concerns continue to plague the market. Global economic output is expected to contract by 2% this year - worse than the financial crisis - while demand has collapsed by 30% because of the pandemic.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) fell $4.16, or 24.6%, to settle at $12.78 a barrel. Brent crude slid $1.45, or 6.8%, to settle at $19.99 a barrel.