These are 10 signs the oil industry is dazed and confused

Jet fuel in storage

Jet fuel deteriorates quickly in storage, and then it cannot be used. Yet demand has fallen so fast as airlines ground aircraft around the world that firms including oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell both sought to lease ships just to store unneeded jet fuel.

Refining petrol costs money

You want to make petrol? It’ll cost you. On Monday, the margins to produce US petrol — the price for a barrel of oil minus a barrel of petrol — closed at a negative price, which means refiners would lose money buying crude to make the fuel. Petrol typically drives the energy complex, as fuel for vehicles accounts for most oil demand worldwide. The margin fell to minus-$1.11 a barrel on Monday, its lowest since 2008.

Russia digs in, Rosneft celebrates shale woes

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin was unwilling to give ground as the US shale industry faced collapse. Oil prices could go back to $60 a barrel if “shale oil leaves markets,” he said on Friday. On Monday, his rival, Lukoil co-owner Leonid Fedun, said “this will be a war until exhaustion”.

Ethanol? Never mind

Maize and sugar supplies look set to rise in 2020 as fuel suppliers make less ethanol for blending into petrol. Companies such as France’s Tereos are shifting ethanol production to industrial uses like hand sanitiser, while sugar producers in Brazil are aiming to make more of the sweetener rather than the fuel.