World oil demand is projected to decrease by 9.1 mb/d in 2020, unchanged from the previous month’s assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected global economic activities, eliminating global oil demand growth potential and leading to a y-o-y decline of 6.4 mb/d in 1Q20 and by 17.3 mb/d y-o-y in 2Q20.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 1.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 539.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 15% above the five year average for this time of year.

Brent was up 29 cents, or 0.7%, at $41.25 a barrel, WTI rose 17 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.55 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia exported nearly 11 million barrels of oil per day, a record, and the US about 8.6 million barrels.

Oil demand in 2020 is expected to fall by 8.1 mb/d, the largest in history, before recovering by 5.7 mb/d in 2021.

Brent rose 77 cents, or 1.94%, at $40.49 a barrel, WTI gained 61 cents, or 1.64%, to $37.73 a barrel.

Spending is also expected to be largely flat in 2021, landing only marginally higher than 2020 at $386 billion. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, expected total upstream investment would maintain last year’s levels, both in 2020 and 2021.

Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to decrease 93,000 b/d month-over-month in June from 7,725 to 7,632 thousand barrels/day, gas production to decrease 693 million cubic feet/day from 81,254 to 80,561 million cubic feet/day .

The government of South Africa has approved the merger of three oil and gas subsidiaries of the state-owned Central Energy Fund (CEF) into a National Oil Company.

Brent was down 15 cents, or 0.4%, at $38.58 a barrel, WTI was down 49 cents, or 1.3%, at $35.77.