COVID-19 Sparked Biggest Downturn In Oil And Gas Industry ‘Since The Great Depression’, OPEC Says

The report, launched in Vienna nearly 60 years after the organisation’s founding, provided analyses on the impact of the ongoing pandemic on oil and energy markets globally, including medium and long-term forecasts up to 2045.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has sparked the biggest economic downturn in the oil and gas sector “in living memory”, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a report published on Thursday.

The 2020 World Oil Outlook (WOO) report, launched via videoconference in Vienna, said the crisis had led to “the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s.”

The news comes as OPEC reduced growth forecasts for all global economies from 2019 to 2025, decreasing to 0.7 percent from 2.1 percent. Non-OECD nations may grow up to 3.4 percent, down one percent from the previous period.

Oil demand is also set to peak around 2040 but is expected to keep the largest share of fossil fuels up to 2045, with natural gas coming in second, OPEC added.

But oil prices could fall from 31.5 percent to 27.5 percent from 2019 to 2045, respectively, and would peak by the end of the forecast period, the report said.

The report comes amid chaos in numerous sectors, namely in the aviation industry, as national carriers such as EasyJet, British Airways, Lufthansa and many others have called for government assistance due to low carrier capacities this year.

The International Air Transportation Association warned the industry could “burn through” $77bn in the second half this year, despite restarting operations, and has urged governments and airports to implement the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s global COVID-19 testing guidelines as an alternative to national lockdowns and quarantine restrictions.

Sourse: sputniknews.com