India’s Oil Demand Spared 2020 Collapse Despite Covid Crisis

The brutal Covid-19 wave sweeping across India tallying grim daily records has surpassed the severity of the 2020 outbreak. On the surface, the near-term outlook looks bleak for oil refiners, but a closer look reveals marked differences between this year’s situation and the last.

While a raft of bearish calls predicting even worse demand this month has emerged after fuel consumption plunged in April, here are some reasons why India’s oil refiners and fuel marketers are better off this year, despite the virus tearing through one of the world’s most populous countries.