The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that it expects global refinery throughput to decline by 7.6 million b/d this year to 74.3 million b/d “on sharply reduced demand for fuels.” This level, “last observed in 2010”, has been attributed to the COVID-19 containment measures. Second-quarter throughput is likely to “plummet” by almost 17 million b /d, due to “widespread run cuts and shutdowns in all regions,” the IEA said. Refinery runs need to drop below 60 million b/d “to avoid product inventory builds,” the IEA said. The IEA expects that, along with 250 million barrels of storage space available in the US, “it is possible that there could be as much storage capacity available in the rest of the world” to house the expected product stocks build-up in Q2. However, in the second half of […]