India demand is practically at a standstill since the lockdown, and refiners have no choice but to cut rates, a source said.

The tanker, chartered to BP for a spot voyage, was in the North Pacific on Wednesday, cFlow showed

Ministers from OPEC, Russia and nine other producers will log on to a high-stakes online summit Thursday.

Brazilian independent oil and natural gas producer Enauta opted not to join the ranks of oil companies slashing spending in the face of collapsing oil prices and reduced demand, instead maintaining plans to invest $196 million over the next two years to explore fresh acreage and complete development of the Atlanta Field.

Crude futures settled higher Wednesday on optimism that Thursday's OPEC+ meeting would yield a production cut agreement.

Shipowners could find themselves in a perilous position as the second quarter develops, should the coronavirus pandemic continue to instill a worldwide slowdown in demand for oil products, despite continued efforts to place material on floating storage for the months ahead.

HollyFrontier said it has cut rates to 70% at its refineries as it looks to manage demand destruction brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic.

The marine fuel market has been flipped on its head this year, with fears there would be a lack of IMO-compliant premium bunker fuels as shippers rushed to meet the new rules on sulfur content not materializing -- instead shortages of its sulfurous cousin have emerged.

Medium range tankers are providing charterers an alternative option in clean product floating storage capacity in Europe, in light of the tightened availability of long range tankers for floating storage, according to shipping sources.

Fuel stockpiles used by shippers and for power generation jumped to a record high on Monday at the Port of Fujairah in the UAE, the strongest sign yet of dwindling storage space for oil products in the region as demand evaporates due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oil tankers have found a second life as floating storage engines to stock cheap crude until markets pick up, after March saw near record low oil prices and sinking demand.

At least four tankers that loaded at US liquefaction terminals appeared Tuesday to be heading to destinations in China, suggesting that the effective year-long freeze on deliveries there may be ending in the weeks ahead, S&P Global Platts vessel-tracking software cFlow showed.

US crude inventories saw their largest-ever weekly build last week as refinery demand cratered amid a historic collapse in product demand, US Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.

Colombia in February exported 3.23 million mt of crude oil and refined products, an 11.7% increase from the 2.90 million mt shipped in February 2019, and up 2.9% from the 3.15 million mt sold in January 2020, according to data available Tuesday on the website of DANE, the government statistics agency that tracks foreign trade.

Argentinian crude runs rose 7.8% year on year in February, led by increased output of diesel and fuel oil, the state statistics department Indec said Tuesday.

Brazil's state-led oil company Petrobras set a production target of 2.07 million b/d for April amid a lack of crude oil storage capacity and reduced domestic demand for refined products, the company said Tuesday.

Crude futures prices dropped sharply late Tuesday after federal data projected only modest US production cuts in 2020 and impatience grew over an apparent lack of progress in a broader OPEC+ deal to scale back volumes.

The cash price for New York Harbor high sulfur gasoil fell Tuesday to its lowest level on record, pressured by a lack of storage and low demand in marine fuel markets.

Permanent changes to social behavior in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns are likely to hit long term oil demand forecasts and accelerate the shift to cleaner fuels but may be more modest than some forecasters predict, according to Jeff Currie, the global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs.

Argentina's Energy Secretariat said Tuesday it has approved a deal allowing the country's state-backed energy company YPF to farm Norway's Equinor into an offshore block in the South Atlantic, where both companies have said they see potential for oil finds.