China’s Covid Lockdowns Are The Single Biggest Threat To Oil Markets

The sharp drop in crude oil prices last week on news that China had extended a Covid-19 lockdown in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, for the majority of its 21 million residents, again highlighted the capacity for such news to cause major sudden falls oil prices in a market characterised by uncertain demand and supply. As the largest annual gross crude oil importer in the world, surpassing the U.S. in this regard in 2017 (having become the world’s largest net importer of total petroleum and…