*The US has long been the world’s top refiner. For 2019 its crude runs of 16.56mn b/d were 3.5mn b/d ahead of number two China, though this gap narrowed to 2.6mn b/d for 4Q 2019 as China ramped up throughputs at new refineries.
*Covid-19 hit Chinese oil demand hard in Q1 2020 (MEES, 27 March 2020). The US oil sector then saw a Covid double whammy from Q2: collapsing mobility hit demand and collapsing oil prices saw huge swathes of US domestic output shut in (MEES, 8 May 2020). (CONTINUED - 372 WORDS)
