Covid to Keep More Oil Underground, Forcing Drillers to Change
- Virus could strand 282 billions barrels of recoverable oil
- Companies that don’t pivot may have trouble with financing
Photographer: Brittany Sowacke/Bloomberg
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Hundreds of billions of barrels of oil stranded by weak demand could accelerate companies’ pivot to cleaner energy, or threaten their long-term survival.
BP Plc raised the possibility of stranded oil assets when it announced this month it would take the biggest writedown on the value of its business in a decade. But it wouldn’t be the only oil company to leave crude in the ground as the pandemic ravages energy consumption. About 282 billion barrels of undiscovered oil is at risk of being stranded as the virus hastens peak demand, according to Rystad Energy AS.