The Crude Report: Impact of Covid on China’s crude market

Covid lockdowns threaten to crush Chinese short term oil consumption, adding another layer of complexity to a market plagued by sky-high prices in the wake of sanctions.  Some 200mn Chinese oil consumers were put under mobility restrictions of varying severity this month, as China faced its most significant spike in Covid cases since early-2020.  This threatens to eliminate a large component of the "pull factor" that shifted the centre of oil demand growth to Asia from the OECD in recent years. Learn more about Argus Crude