Will Oil Ever Recover To Pre-COVID Levels?

Last May, Bernard Looney, the CEO of BP, said that "the coronavirus hit to crude consumption was likely to endure beyond the pandemic- and may have even ushered in "peak oil" demand (See FT, 13/5/2020). A few weeks later Rystad Energy’s 2020 annual review of world oil resources revealed that the Covid-19 downturn will expedite peak oil demand, putting a lid on exploration efforts in remote offshore areas and as a result the world’s recoverable oil will be reduced by around 282 billion barrels. Rystad further noted that global total…