Oil companies, oil refiners, and oil traders believe that the worst of the demand destruction is already behind us. But the jury is still out on how long it will take for global oil demand to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels–if ever. The current prevailing opinion among industry professionals, international organizations, and analysts is that it could be more than a year before oil demand returns to 2019 levels. There are early encouraging signs that demand is already edging up from the bottom that it hit a couple of weeks ago. Yet, the industry may have to wait until the end of 2021 to see global oil demand back up to 100 million barrels per day (bpd). What’s worse, some analysts say demand may never return to those levels. Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said on the earnings call last week that the current crisis is a “crisis of […]