- Oil trades lower amid concerns of weaker demand
- WTI extends losses to trade near $84/Bbl
- China, the largest oil importer in the world, continues to face uncertain crude demand
- China tightened Covid restrictions in Guangzhou yesterday, raising worries about future economic and demand disruptions as the nation adheres to its Covid-zero policy
- The city is a major manufacturing hub in China, with a population of nearly 19 million
- IEA director Fatih Birol said that the IEA members have huge oil reserves that are ready to be released, if necessary, but they are currently "not on the agenda" (BBG, Reuters)
- Birol referred to the OPEC+ decision to reduce production as "unfortunate," particularly given that economies across the world are on the verge of recession
- He added that the world will still need Russian oil to flow at 80% to 90% to the market despite a price cap, an "encouraging level" to meet demand
- Finally, Birol said that the IEA is reviewing its forecasts for renewable energy installations as governments work to minimize their dependency on Russian fuel
- He also added that renewable energy capacity might rise by 20% this year
- Europe’s largest oil refinery suffered a second malfunction in two weeks (BBG)
- Shell Plc’s Pernis plant near Rotterdam has a capacity of 0.404 MMBbl/d, and Shell did not provide specifics about the reason for the outage
- The key gasoline-making unit known as the FCC suffered an unplanned outage earlier this month as a result of a loss of power supply
- Europe cannot afford major disruptions in fuel supply as the EU is set to ban the purchase of refined petroleum from Russia starting in early February