COVID-19 is expected to cause global energy emissions to fall a record eight percent this year due to an unprecedented drop in demand for coal, oil and gas, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

The price of Venezuelan oil has fallen to below $10 a barrel -- its lowest level in more than two decades, the government said on Friday. The oil ministry said the price between Monday and Friday was 70.62 Chinese yuan - $9.90 a barrel - a level that has not been seen since 1998 when it was $9.28.

The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered Chevron Corp. to “wind down” operations in Venezuela by 1 December, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting, as the U.S. increases pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to give up power.

The oil market, rocked by crisis this week as prices plunged below zero on rampant oversupply and demand-destroying coronavirus, faces the critical problem of where to store surplus crude. Energy storage facilities are nearly full, which has added to downward pressure on crude prices.

Oil prices collapsed to more than two-decade lows Monday as traders grow concerned that storage facilities are reaching their limits, while signs that the coronavirus may have peaked in Europe and the United States were unable to help Asian equities extend their recent advances.

Austrian largest power provider, Verbund, shut down on Friday the Mellach power plant in Styria, marking the end of coal-fired power generation in Austria, news wires reported. The district heating plant was the last operational coal-fired unit in the country. For 34 years, the power plant produced more than 30 billion kWh of electricity and 20 billion kWh of district heating. In the future, it will only be kept ready for back-up.

Europe can reach climate neutrality before 2050 with 100% renewable energy system, a report by SolarPower Europe and LUT University showed on 15 April. The study is the first of its kind to model a fully renewable pathway to achieving climate neutrality for the European energy system, presenting three transition pathways, with varying levels of ambition.

The OPEC oil cartel said Thursday that the world market for crude is undergoing an unprecedented jolt due to coronavirus mitigation measures that have decimated demand.

Global oil demand will fall by a record amount this year as lockdown measures imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak bring the economy to a virtual halt, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday. For 2020 overall, demand will fall by 9.3 million barrels per day (mbd), with April alone down 29 mbd from a year earlier to levels last seen in 1995, the IEA said in its latest monthly report.

Norwegian officials including new Oil & Energy Minister Tina Bru were still “evaluating” on Tuesday whether they’ll cut the country’s offshore oil production, even after OPEC and several other oil-producing nations agreed to their own cuts over the weekend. Oil prices ended up falling again on Tuesday, as did the value of Norway’s currency, after widespread criticism that the cuts already agreed aren’t big enough.