With the emergence of COVID-19, a novel coronavirus, in Wuhan, China, there has been a noticeable drop in the price of crude oil. Due to the notoriety of the past severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the world and especially China has been on alert.
In a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus, China has placed a quarantine on Wuhan and its neighboring cities, affecting approximately 50 million people. The quarantine has severely limited travel within and outside of China, lowering the energy required for transportation on a global scale.