Demand to plumme­t by record 9.3m barrel­s per day for the yearPARIS: The coronavirus outbreak will slash global oil demand in 2020 to erase a decade of growth and set up “the worst year in the history” of the sector, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. “I believe in a few years’ time, when you look at 2020 we may well see that it was the worst year in the history of global oil markets,” he told reporters on a teleconference. “Once the declines in oil demand start to reduce and once the impact of the production cuts from the OPEC+ agreement and non-OPEC producers start to bite, we start to see a recovery in the second half of the year,” Neil Atkinson, head of the agency’s oil division, told the briefing. This means that “COVID-19 results in one year of growth loss of the global economy and almost a decade of growth lost in global oil markets,” added Birol. The benchmark WTI contract tumbled to $19.20 per barrel, the lowest level in 18 years.

Source: The Express Tribune April 15, 2020 13:07 UTC