COM - Oil up as outages in Libya offset China lockdowns and refinery run cuts

Oil (CL1:COM) traded marginally higher ahead of the US equity market open Monday, as major production outages in Libya offset demand weakness related to China's pandemic response. The outages in Libya appear to be protest-related and the story is developing rapidly. While demand impacts from Chinese lockdowns are being exacerbated by policy-led oil product export restrictions. Saturday, Libya shut its largest onshore oil field, as political protestors gathered, preventing field workers from continuing production, according to the National Oil Company's Facebook page. By Sunday morning the Mellitah oil port was shut, and by Monday a series of protest-related outages across the country reduced production by 535kb/d (USO) (XLE). Protestors are demanding Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah step down, according to Bloomberg.    In China, the pandemic response has seen an easing of lockdowns in Shanghai; however, stricter controls have been imposed in Zuzhou and Zhenghzhou. The additional restrictions are sparking fears

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Oil up as outages in Libya offset China lockdowns and refinery run cuts