Benchmark Brent and U.S. oil futures for June delivery plunged to around two-decade lows today, a day after U.S. May futures sank into negative territory for the first time in history as demand tumbled due to the coronavirus crisis.
Brent for June delivery LCOc1, the front-month contract, fell to as low as $18.10, its lowest since November 2001. At 14:00 GMT, it was down 20% at $20.47.
The June contract for U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc2 dropped 23.7% to $15.59, after hitting its lowest since 1999.
SmartStream Technologies, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM®) solutions provider, today announced that Jumhouria Bank, the biggest bank in Libya, has successfully gone live on SmartStream’s solution for the reconciliations of cash payments – the first of a two phase implementation to consolidate and automate the reconciliation process across its 170 branches to deliver real-time operational control.
According to a news article published by Finextra, Mr. Nouri Ali Mohamed Aboflega, Deputy General Manager, Jumhouria Bank says: “We strive to fulfil our vision at Jumhouria Bank, to maintain our position as the first people’s bank in the region. Through continuous investment in technology we aim to provide the highest level of service to our customers. The first phase of the project is an important step for us and we are extremely pleased with the initial results. We look forward to leveraging SmartStream’s industry expertise in reconciliations as we continue to add more value to our business.”
Libya’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) revealed that three Coronavirus cases recovered, confirming that their lab tests and analyses came out negative.
In today’s statement, the Centre added that it received a total of 58 samples, and they all proved negative.
It will be reminded that the country’s total cases are 51, with 14 recoveries and one death.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the official medical spokesman for the Supreme Committee to Combat the Coronavirus Pandemic, Ahmed Al-Hassi, confirmed the recovery of Benghazi’s first Coronavirus patient.
In a statement to “Tabadul”, the Director of Ras Ajdir crossing border with Tunisia, Mohamed Jarafa, said that about 800 Tunisians had been stuck there for a month in an attempt to enter the Libyan territories due to their harsh living conditions.
Hundreds of Tunisians who were stranded in Libya after the borders were closed over the coronavirus crisis reached a Tunisian frontier post on Monday, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said.
Some 652 people reached the border post and will be subjected to security checks before they can cross, when they will enter quarantine facilities, it said in a statement carried by state media
“They have lived in a very difficult situation and have been facing their destiny alone for long days,” said Mustafa Abdel Kabir, head of the Human Rights Observatory, a Tunisian organisation.
Many of the migrants on the border have been stranded there for weeks and hundreds still remain, the Libya head of the United Nations migration agency, which has been providing them with aid, said in a Tweet.
According to today’s statement posted on Facebook , the Tripoli Central Bank of Libya issued instructions allowing local banks to resume the opening of Letters of Credit amid the state’s total curfew.
The bank stressed that this decision was taken with reference to the state of necessity that requires banks continue providing their services regarding the opening of Letters of Credit.
Oil prices in the US have crashed below zero for the first time in history as demand for energy plummeted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The historic fall was fuelled by traders not wanting to get stuck owning crude oil with nowhere to keep it. The dramatic decline in demand due to the COVID-19 crisis means that storage facilities are nearly full.
Tanks could hit their limits within three weeks, according to analysts.
Brent LCOc1 was down by 147 %, at $ -8.60 a barrel.
The Libyan Health committee formed by the High Council of State held a meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir in order to discuss measures of distributing liquidity in commercial banks under the state’s total curfew.
The meeting also tackled procedures to facilitate financial appropriation, especially for basic commodities, medicines as well as medical equipment and supplies due to the emergency imposed by the Coronavirus epidemic, especially amid fears of market shortages and price spikes.
Moreover, the meeting discussed the situation of stranded Libyans as well as ways to return them back in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, embassies and consulates.
The Ministry of Health said on Sunday that it had delivered three modern devices to the National Center for Disease Control, to be used in PCR examination for detecting the Covid-19.
The center received a shipment of laboratory supplies, which consisted of fifty thousand pieces of kit used for taking Nasal Swab and one hundred thousand pieces of other sample tools, including, BIO SPEEDY COVID-19 Qpcr Detection Kit and BIO SPEEDY Viral Nucleic acid Isolation Kit (BS-NA-109-100), as said by the Health Ministry.
During an interview on Libya Panorama Channel, the President of the High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri, revealed that before suspending the financial appropriation, there are available commodities estimated at more than 900 million dinars, which would meet the market’s needs amid Coronavirus crisis.
He also stressed that the situation is under control regarding the provision of goods, adding that they have enough goods for the next three months.
Al-Mishri confirmed that the oil blockade affected the dollar’s rise in the parallel market, indicating that the dollar price is now an unreal price, and that it is only a means of pressure to open the Letters of Credit.
Al-Mishri also declared the High Council’s intention to defend the state’s economic reforms.
