Older refineries in particular in Europe but also in other areas such Australia/New Zealand and the US have been suffering from poor margins and were destined for closure due to the planned ramp-up in capacity from more modern refineries in the Middle East and Asia. Covid-19 has accelerated this process with announcements of ~1.9 mbpd of confirmed capacity closures/conversions, of which ~60% is expected to have occurred in FY’21.
The majority of these announcements have been driven by the oil majors rationalising their refining footprint across the world. In fact, ~40% of confirmed capacity closures/conversions is expected to occur in the US, ~11% in Europe and ~15% in Australia/New Zealand.
An additional ~0.6 mbpd of capacity closures is currently under assessment, of which ~45% is expected to occur in Europe and ~55% in Australia/New Zealand.
According to the IEA, over the next few years, Europe and all the regions of the southern hemisphere are expected to remain reliant on product imports from the United States, Russia, the Middle East and China.
The US rig count has been slowly but surely rising, driving a gradual increase in US oil output, which is expected to reach 12.6 mbd by the end of ‘22 and 13.3 mbd by the end of ‘23, well above the pre-pandemic highs.