Richie Merzian is still thinking about oil a lot in his professional capacity, but these days he’s using much less of it. The Australian energy and climate change researcher used to drive daily to his office and his kids’ daycare, while occasionally flying to international conferences. Now he works from his home in suburban Canberra and makes presentations to large investors online from his living room.
These radical changes in mobility are being repeated globally, a shift that socked oil demand and caused a historic price collapse gutting companies and government balance sheets. What’s less clear, and of great importance to researchers like Merzian as well as oil traders, investors and executives, is which of these extreme shifts in work, travel and commerce may permanently alter consumption.
“I don’t even carry keys around in my pocket anymore, because I don’t ever need to jump in the car,” Merzian said. “We’ve shifted the norm. You can’t push things this far along and expect them to snap back.”
Government efforts to keep people at home and slow the spread of the disease have wiped out more than 30% of global oil demand. Excess crude is filling up storage tanks so fast it drove U.S. futures into negative prices for the first time ever this week.