The coronavirus has destabilised equity and bond markets. Now it is roiling the oil market with the prospect of a full-on price war after the fracturing of the OPEC+ cartel on Friday.

Even as sharemarkets appear likely to plunge even further this week – the Australian market was in freefall when it opened on Monday – the collapse of the collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Russia to finesse production to maintain prices caused the oil price to tumble 10 per cent on Friday.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al-Saud, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, arriving for an OPEC meeting in Vienna on Friday. He failed to convince Russia to agree to extend and increase production curbs. Credit:AP

The price has continued to dive and, at about $US28 a barrel, is down over 30 per cent since Friday and is about 50 per cent lower than the levels at which it was trading at before the virus emerged. That is just adding to the turmoil, losses and fear in global markets.

With the Saudis slashing prices and specifically targeting Russia’s customers in what appears to be the initial manoeuvring in what could be a full-scale price and market share war, analysts are predicting the price could fall as low as $US20 a barrel.