The global coronavirus pandemic is weighing heavily on worldwide demand for oil as the aviation and transport sectors, in particular, struggle with the fallout from the lockdowns aimed at reining in the disease, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has cast a long shadow over oil demand, which we now expect to fall by 8.1 million barrels per day year-on-year in 2020,” the IEA wrote in its latest monthly report.
Overall, the IEA cut its forecast for global oil demand for the whole of 2020 to 91.9 million barrels per day, the first downgrade in a number of months.
It said it expected demand to recover somewhat next year to 97.1 million bpd, though this would still be down on its previous forecast.
