Due to low oil demand and a rising glut of supply around the globe, oil and natural gas prices are expected to remain low throughout 2020, the global rating agency Moody's said in a statement on Thursday.
"The worldwide economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic will persist into the second quarter of 2020, if not longer before economic fundamentals improve in the second half," the statement said.
Coronavirus-related weak oil demand in the world, coupled with OPEC oil-producing countries failing to further cut their outputs, has caused extreme volatility in oil prices, according to Moody's.
The rating agency said it expects oil prices to remain weak through 2020 before the global oil market starts to rebalance itself once oil supplies begin to decline.
Moody's, however, said that there is high uncertainty about the pace of recovery in demand, and warned that oil prices could remain weak in 2021 as well.
The agency estimates the price of Brent crude to average $35-$40 per barrel range this year, and between $45-$50 a barrel range next year, while it forecasts West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to average $5 per barrel lower.
