Challenges Facing the Gulf Petroleum Industry: Covid-19, New Technologies, Energy Transition

Abstract

The outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic and the resulting economic downturn have undermined the already weakened position of the global oil and gas industry. Since the transportation sector depends on 60 percent of energy from oil consumption, movement constraints are quickly interpreted into reduced oil demand. Consequently, various crude oil indices reached their lowest level by mid-2020, when the daily global oil consumption declined to less than 75 million barrels, compared to some 100 million barrels earlier that year, before recovering afterward.