When the pandemic pummeled the oil industry in the spring, many called the situation unprecedented. Prices were falling because of oversupply, but demand was failing to react to lower prices because of the pandemic. Then China’s lockdown ended, and the industry breathed a sigh of relief. Things were going to get back on track. But now lockdowns are being implemented once again and a return to ‘normal’ seems as far away as it has ever been. The UK enters a month-long lockdown today. The country is nowhere near as essential for oil demand as China or India, but that is not what is important. What’s important is the fact the UK – and Germany and France before it – needed a second lockdown to handle the coronavirus that wrecked global oil demand in the spring. That’s why the announcement sent oil prices falling and even an 8-million-barrel weekly draw […]