Persistent damage to the global economy from the coronavirus pandemic will hollow out demand for oil more than previously thought, major industry figures said on Monday.
The producer club bumped up its forecast slightly for developed countries, but cut its outlook for Asian countries beyond China"on the back of a slowdown in economic activity due to the rising Covid-19 infection cases". Vitol chief executive Russell Hardy sounded a more positive note, telling a global petroleum conference that after oil storage peaks at the nadir of the pandemic, the market was"slowly chewing through that excess inventory".
Meanwhile, oil prices slipped slightly on Monday amid concerns about a stalled global economic recovery and with Libya poised to resume production, and failed to get support from an impending storm which has disrupted US oil output. Typically oil prices rise when production is shut down, but with the coronavirus pandemic getting worse, demand concerns are to the fore, while global supplies continue to rise.