The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a extreme blow to financial exercise across the globe and sapped demand for vitality. Whereas OPEC and its oil producing allies finalized a historic agreement earlier this month to chop manufacturing by 9.7 million barrels per day, the Worldwide Power Company has warned that the cuts might not be sufficient to offset a severe plunge in oil demand.

With demand at near-paralysis, oil and gasoline tanks world wide are near brimming — a stark proof of the worldwide glut and a perform of the “contango” construction of the futures market, the place contracts for later supply commerce at a premium to the front-month.