Oil (CL1:COM) traded marginally higher ahead of the US equity market open Monday, as major production outages in Libya offset demand weakness related to China's pandemic response. The outages in Libya appear to be protest-related and the story is developing rapidly. While demand impacts from Chinese lockdowns are being exacerbated by policy-led oil product export restrictions. Interestingly, China released oil product export data Monday, indicating that gasoline and diesel exports have fallen 40% and 76% year to date, respectively. A measure that is sure to tighten global oil product markets and boost profitability for US and European refiners like Valero (VLO), Marathon (MPC) and Saras.

Source: Libya Today April 18, 2022 22:52 UTC