China Oil Demand Has Plunged 20% Because of the Virus Lockdown

China Oil Demand Has Plunged 20% Because of the Virus Lockdown

Executives describe privately the scale of the demand shock. Chinese oil demand has dropped by about three million barrels a day, or 20% of total consumption, as the coronavirus squeezes the economy, according to people with inside knowledge of the country's energy industry.. China is the world's largest oil importer, after surpassing the U.S. in 2016, so any change in consumption has an outsize impact on the global energy market.. The collapse in Chinese oil consumption is starting to reverberate across the global energy market, with sales of some crudes slowing to a crawl and benchmark prices in free-fall.. The most recent agreed reductions only came together after considerable diplomatic wrangling, and Saudi Arabia has already slashed production to the lowest since 2014.. "Nothing concentrates a producer's mind more than the prospect of a crude oil price bust," said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, and a former White House oil official under President George W. Bush..