t’s SARS CoV, better known as the SARS Coronavirus, and it’s shaping up to be the oil market’s biggest nemesis this year. And there’s no cure.
SARS, which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome, is not only deadly, but highly contagious—more contagious than originally thought, and this coronavirus-inspired fear has now decisively spilled over into the oil market.
With highly contagious and deadly viruses like the SARS CoV, fear rules the day. Whether it’s a personal fear that one might catch the virus, or whether one actually catches the virus, the result is that people will stop traveling to some extent.
Even the fear that people may stop traveling is enough to result in an economic slump. Whether one catches the virus or not is irrelevant economically speaking—the mere perception that it’s a possibility creates ripples in the world economy as people change traveling, purchasing, and trading patterns.
The oil markets are obsessed with China—specifically China’s demand for oil.
Oil demand was at the forefront of all the pricing moves throughout 2019. The thought of dampened demand from the world’s second largest oil consumer outweighs even significant geopolitical risk, as well as tangible oil production outages such as the attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in September and Libya's current nearly complete outage of over 1 million barrels per day.
One may look at China’s oil consumption, at 13.5 million bpd in 2018, as being far below that of the United States, which consumed 20.5 million bpd that same year. So, why all the China fuss? Surely U.S. demand would move markets more than China? But it’s the oil demand growth that moves prices, and China’s oil demand growth (and India’s too) is far greater than that of the United States. In fact, China’s oil demand has been growing at an annual rate of 5.5%, while the United States’ oil demand has been growing by 0.5%.
And most of what China uses, it imports, adding another layer of market-sway into the mix.
This is what moves markets.
Not even OPEC and its jawbone to herald its oil production-cut prowess can outshine negative news about what is already China's slowing demand growth.
And of all the threats to the oil industry that people were expecting in 2020, no one saw this coming: the virus ripping through China at unprecedented rates is eating into China's oil demand more than anyone could have ever expected.
Every aspect of the economy hits the oil market. But of particular note is the effect the virus could have on travel, which would affect air travel and road travel, impacting jet fuel and gasoline consumption. And with the persistent robust supplies that are loitering on the market today, slack demand couldn’t come at a worse time.
All of this at a time when the oil market was hopeful of an increase in demand thanks to the Chinese New Year holiday that typically sees an uptick in travel and gift giving.
Against this perceived and real demand impact, OPEC will be mostly impotent, even with Libya’s million-barrel-a-day loss and Saudi Arabia’s overproduction.
Photo source: picture from an open source