Oil loses gains made last week–Hamm still optimistic

As a survey of 30 analysts, strategists and traders showed they believe oil prices will plunge below $20 a barrel, the price of oil on Monday fell more than $2 to a level of slightly more than $26 a barrel.

The CNBC survey indicated some analysts believe crude prices will actually fall to as low as $10 a barrel as the coronavirus outbreak leaves the market severely damaged.

In Monday’s trading, WTI closed down $2.04 and finished the day at $26.30 a barrel. Brent crude dropped 81 cents and fell to $33.30 a barrel.

Natural gas dropped 13 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange and ended at $1.74 per Million BTU.

Devon Energy added 42 cents for the day and finished at $8.80 while Chesapeake Energy slipped to just under 17 cents per share.

Conoco Phillips fell 11 cents to $32.79 while Marathon Oil dropped 3 cents to end the day at $3.62.

ONEOK shares gained $1.69 and finished at $23.33 while Phillips 66 rose $5.80 to reach $57.42 a share.

American Electric Power finished the day up $6.09 at $78.59 a share.

Meanwhile, Continental Resources founder Harold Hamm, in a Monday afternoon with business anchor Neil Cavuto on Fox News indicated he believes the Russians and Saudis will follow through with their pledge to cut oil production.

“They made a commitment to the President,” said Hamm. “It all adds up and I think they’re serious. And I thank him so much for intervening.”

But is the reported commitment to cut about 10 million barrels of oil production enough to stop the price slide?

“It is. It’s good news because the growth isn’t as much and we ought to see demand increase in the next 30, 60 to 90 days,” he explained. “The U.S. is making cuts and everybody’s gotta do this.”

Hamm said he remains optimistic about the future for oil as well as the battle against COVID-19.

“Obviously, we have to go back to work. We need to kick it back in, the sooner the better, we gotta turn it loose and go back to work.”

But 90 days?

“Hopefully it won’t be over 90 days,” he answered. “We’ve never been there before.”

Click here to view Fox News interview.