Major oil industry producers and traders are forecasting a bleak future for worldwide fuel demand, due to the coronavirus pandemic’s ongoing assault on the global economy, Reuters reported. The novel coronavirus hammered fuel demand in the spring, causing consumption to drop by more than one-third as billions of people worldwide restricted their movements. Consumption rebounded in the summer, but some countries where infections were under control are seeing a resurgence in the deadly virus, sparking waves of lockdowns that could hamper the recovery. “The outlook appears even more fragile ... the path ahead is treacherous amid surging COVID-19 cases in many parts of the world,” the International Energy Agency warned in its monthly report today. The Paris-based energy watchdog revised down its forecast for global oil demand in 2020 by 200,000 barrels per day and noted that a draw on abundant oil stocks in June after three months of builds had faltered in July. On Monday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its outlook for demand in 2020 by 400,000 bpd from its previous report, saying world oil demand would fall by 9.46 million bpd this year. A dent in demand caused by a continuing rise in cases or a second wave presents “the most likely shock that the oil market needs to be considering in the next 12 to 24 months,” Vitol’s global head of research, Giovanni Serio said at Platts APPEC 2020.
