Oil Producers Are Pumping 20 Million Barrels More Than What The World Needs

A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo

Bloomberg: Oil Trading House Vitol Says Demand Is Down as Much as 20%

Global oil demand has fallen as much as 20% from last year as more countries lockdown billions of people inside their houses in a bid to halt the spread of the coranavirus, the world’s top independent oil trader said.

Russell Hardy, the head of Vitol Group, said that consumption of crude had dropped by between 15 million and 20 million barrels a day from the normal level of 100 million barrels a day. “Demand is down significantly,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Wednesday. “Demand is going to be down for a decent period of time,” he added.

The loss will continue at that level for at least a few weeks, Hardy said, contributing to an average annual decline of at least 5 million barrels a day, by far the largest the global oil market has suffered since reliable data is available from the early 1960s.

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Update: World’s Largest Oil Trader Says Demand Could Plummet By 20 Million Bpd (OilPrice.com)

WNU Editor: They are going to run out of places to store this surplus .... Oil traders book more tankers for sea storage as global crude glut builds - sources (Reuters). In the meantime for Canadian oil producers in Alberta this crash has been a disaster .... Canadian crude plummets to US$5 a barrel as oilpatch awaits federal bailout (National Observer).