(Bloomberg) --China is set to extend its dominance in the global oil market as planned tax adjustments spark a chain reaction, prompting processors to boost crude imports and raise refinery run rates.

Unlike in the previous downturn in 2015-2016, U.S. shale producers are exiting the 2020 oil price and demand collapse with their promises intact to rein in production growth and return more cash to increasingly demanding shareholders.

As restrictions ease across Europe, we are slowly seeing a resurgence in fuel demand for travel, not only in gasoline and diesel but also in jet fuel as travel and tourism gradually pick up.

By early April 2021, striking healthcare workers demanding higher wages as they managed Argentina’s COVID-19 crisis, were blockading the sprawling Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas deposit in Neuquen. That province is at the heart of Argentina’s hydrocarbon sector - pumping over a third of Argentina’s total crude oil production and half of its natural gas.

An immediate halt to oil exploration is one of the steps that need to be taken in order for the world to reach Paris Agreement climate change commitments. That’s what the International Energy Agency said in a first-of-its-kind roadmap to net zero.

Crude oil prices moved further down today after the Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory build of 1.3 million barrels for the week to May 14.

The International Energy Agency, which has stepped up its efforts to become a major green energy supporter, appears to have forgotten the reason it was set up as an agency in the first place. In its new report “Net Zero in 2050”, the energy agency calls for no new investments in oil- and gas-related projects.

The world doesn’t need any new investments in oil and gas beyond what is already approved if it hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday, adding that the road to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius involves a rapid and radical shift away from fossil fuels.

Colombia’s oil industry is yet again under considerable pressure, despite the national government in Bogota attempting to reactivate the economically crucial sector. The March 2020 oil price crash, COVID-19 pandemic, rising security risk and now significant political turmoil are weighing heavily on the oil industry’s performance. After a rough 2020 where Colombia’s five-month long quarantine lockdown sharply impacted operational activity and crude oil production, there are signs that the Andean country’s oil industry is struggling to recover. This comes after a moment of optimism in late-2020 where it appeared that Colombia’s hydrocarbon sector was on track to return to a pre-pandemic tempo of operations. The latest data from the energy ministry for Latin America’s fourth largest economy indicates that is not the case. During March 2020, Colombia pumped a daily average of 744,715 barrels of crude oil and 1.2 million cubic feet of natural gas, which is a 0.14% and 5% less than a month earlier.

After having a year to forget in 2020, the energy sector has this year emerged as the best-performing of all 11 U.S. market sectors. Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLE) is up 41% in the year-to-date, making the broader market S&P 500’s 11% gain appear downright anemic. Oil prices appear to have stabilized in the upper 60s, with WTI price finding support around $63 per barrel while Brent is seeing support around $65 per barrel.

The year 2020 was a watershed moment for the fossil fuel sector. Faced with a global pandemic, severe demand shocks, and a shift towards renewable energy, experts warned that nearly $900 billion worth of reserves--or about one-third of the value of big oil and gas companies--were at risk of becoming worthless.

OPEC’s oil exports have jumped by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in May, while the OPEC+ group started easing the production cuts by 350,000 bpd this month, tanker tracker Petro-Logistics said on Monday.