The Global Oil Market Is Broken, Drowning in Crude Nobody Needs
- Virus lockdowns have cut global oil consumptions by up to 25%
- The world is fast running out of space to store excess crude
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The global oil market is broken, overwhelmed by an unmanageable surplus as virus lockdowns cascade through the world’s largest economies.
Onshore tanks in many markets are full, forcing traders to store excess oil in idle supertankers. Refineries are starting to shut down because nobody needs the fuels they produce. In physical oil markets, barrels are already changing hands for less than $10, and in a few landlocked markets producers are paying consumers to take away their crude.