SINGAPORE — Oil prices have plunged during the pandemic and the sector’s crisis could get worse as new investments are unlikely to flow in, experts said at an energy conference this week.

Pandemic-related movement restrictions stopped people from commuting and traveling, drastically reducing oil usage. Earlier this year, the May contract for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude plunged deep into negative territory for the first time in its history. Overall, oil prices have dropped around 40% since the start of the year.

With the poor performance across the industry, analysts at the S&P Global Platts’ Platts Asia Pacific Petroleum Virtual Conference (APPEC) 2020 this week flagged that drawing investment to the sector would be a problem.