Nitesh Shah (Wisdom Tree) | With the coronavirus spreading around the world, the market is understandably scared that demand for crude oil will fall hard this year. Brent oil prices have fallen from a peak of US$68/barrel in the first week of January to US$56/barrel currently (24/02/2020). We believe that the backwardation in the Brent oil futures curve is generated by the fact that OPEC is ready to intervene.