“The divergence of opinion over coronavirus’s effect on oil demand goes beyond OPEC. The International Energy Agency warned on Feb. 13 that demand for oil is likely to be 435,000 barrels a day less in the current quarter compared with a year ago. Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader, is more pessimistic, expecting that quarterly demand will fall by around 2.2 million barrels a day. Under either scenario, a quarterly decline would be the first since the height of the global financial crisis.”
-Summer Said and Benoit Faucon (Wall Street Journal) report on the disparity within OPEC+ regarding the impact of China’s coronavirus on global oil demand and the urgency of a response. They report that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE – which represent over half of OPEC’s production capacity – are considering a possible joint output cut of their own. [WSJ]
