Price Trends for Key Commodities

• Sharp decline in prices for crude oil and naphtha
• Year-on-year decrease in gas prices, but with wide regional variance

The average price for a barrel of Brent crude oil decreased to $42 per barrel (2019: $64 per barrel) and fluctuated over the course of the year between around $64 per barrel in January and around $18 per barrel in April.

Over the course of the year, the average monthly price for the chemical raw material naphtha ranged between $528 per metric ton in January and $140 per metric ton in April. At $355 per metric ton, the annualized average price of naphtha in 2020 was lower than in 2019 ($505 per metric ton).

The average price of gas in the United States was $1.99 per mmBtu, below the level of the previous year ($2.56 per mmBtu). In Europe, the average price of gas on the spot market was also significantly lower than in 2019, at $3.17 per mmBtu (2019: $4.46 per mmBtu). Gas prices in China averaged around $6.29 per mmBtu nationally (2019: $6.39 per mmBtu), while the average price in the coastal provinces was $7.48 per mmBtu (2019: $7.59 per mmBtu).

Price trends for crude oil (Brent) and naphtha

$/barrel, $/metric ton