As US Unemployment Hits a Staggering 22 Million, Will UN Layoffs Be Far Behind?

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Credit: United Nations

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS) - The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.

Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. I think, some experts have said, it’s the virus that will decide.”

Still, there are several other lingering questions which remain unanswered– specifically against the backdrop of a severe new cash crisis threatening the survival of the UN and aggravated by a global economic meltdown.

If the crisis continues, will there be staff layoffs in a country where more than 22 million people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.?

In New York city alone – host to the United Nations – it is estimated that 475,000 jobs will be lost by March 2021, and nearly 60,000 workers in the New York’s five boroughs will be out of work before July this year, according to a report last week from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Among some of the questions raised by staffers: how long can the UN keep its staff on its payroll while the Organization is fast running out of cash– and is on an austerity drive freezing new recruitment?

If there are salary cuts, will they start at the top with senior management (as is done in several private sector firms in the US). Or will it start at the bottom?

And, equally important question by staffers: will medical coverage be affected?

As things stand, if UN staffers are laid off, they are unlikely to qualify for unemployment benefits from New York State because the UN is an international organization with its own independent status.

Meanwhile, will the global economic recession have a direct or an indirect impact on the estimated $53 billion UN Pension Fund on which UN retirees survive? What was the reason, for the sudden resignation of a senior official, which is being kept under wraps?

And what is the future of educational grants staffers are entitled to?

Credit: United Nations

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS the UN was in bad shape financially long before this pandemic hit the Organization.

“We know member states are now under tremendous pressure but they still must step up and fulfill their obligations.”

If there are to be furloughs of staff, it should be the very last step taken by the organization, and done across all levels of staff and management, he argued.

“In any case, the Organization must continue to pay their medical insurance. It should not be cut as it is more necessary now than ever.”

Candusso also pointed out that UN staff in New York were never eligible for unemployment insurance.

“I don’t know if the current law passed by the US Congress makes UN staff eligible for any benefits,” he said.

In a letter to 92 heads of departments, regional commissions, special political missions and peacekeeping operations, Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, says contributions for regular budget assessments have “sharply declined” in the first quarter of 2020 relative to earlier years, and the payment of assessments by the 193 member states currently stands at 42 percent compared to 50 percent by this time in earlier years.

This has resulted in a collection gap of more than $220 million while outstanding contributions for regular budget have reached $2.27 billion, said Pollard.

As a result, the UN has decided to temporarily suspend all hiring for regular budget vacancies and limit all non-post expenses while postponing all discretionary spending unless it is directly and immediately linked to ongoing mandated activities—activities approved by the General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy making body.

Pollard also said that even peacekeeping operations face increasing liquidity pressure with outstanding contributions amounting to $3.16 billion.

Ian Richards, a UN Staff representative and former President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS there are a number of factors at play, and for this reason, it is too early to draw hard conclusions.

“Yes, governments have had to devote a lot of resources to trying to mitigate the impact of the crisis within their borders, and for some countries, money is limited.”

“But many also realise that efforts to fight this global pandemic at home and abroad are only as strong as the world’s weakest health systems and economies –and the world’s most vulnerable populations”.

“So. we are seeing aid budgets being redirected to this area,” he noted.

The UN’s ability to position itself in this area and demonstrate the importance of international coordination, is key to securing funding stability.

“Staff are certainly worried, but we all have a role to play here”, said Richards .

“At the same time, we need to be vigilant about vulnerable staff, such as those on temporary or uber-style contracts, falling through the gaps”.

“The Secretary-General has made assurances to protect a great many of them, but they are also the most impacted by the postponement of conferences and other activities,” he said.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Department of Public Information (now re-christened Department of Global Communications) told IPS “unprecedented times require unprecedented creative handling”.

Focus on essential staff is crucial for the U.N. to survive when member states, particularly those unabashedly failing to pay their assessed dues, avert minimum required action.

He pointed out that many U.N. programmes and Funds, like UNDP, UNICEF,UNHCR and UNRWA depend on voluntary contributions.

Certain governments which are not even paying their mandatory dues may use the global virus as a pretext to avoid or delay payments.

The Secretary General who is trying his best called for ceasefire in conflicts but with limited results. And peacekeeping operations are increasingly vulnerable, said Sanbar.

Staff face risk of catching the virus working in close proximity while not getting adequate payment– let alone required per diem, he said.

Sanbar said countries contributing troops are more likely to focus on their internal needs while staff representatives who would normally meet to co-ordinate and propose action are limited by home confinement.

“Let us hope the obvious threat in varied forms inspires unity of thought and action among leadership and staff of all the U.N. system,” he declared.

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS the liquidity crisis has been lingering for more than a year and major contributors should not be allowed to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to continue withholding their dues.

A strong and functional UN is in the best interest of all member states and the world community, he said.

In His Fight Against WHO, Trump Plays Politics with Human Lives

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation dashboard. This interactive dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis. Credit: WHO

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 15 2020 (IPS) - President Donald Trump’s threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as ‘reckless and deadly”—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.

The US president, who has dismissed WHO as “China-centric”, has also been accused of playing politics with human lives—while he, in turn, blames the agency for mishandling the coronavirus outbreak and not supporting his earlier decision to bar Chinese from entering the US.

“The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable,” he told reporters at a White House briefing April 14, “So much death has been caused by their mistakes”, he said, as he continues to exaggerate his charges, as he is usually prone to in his daily life.

In a six-column spread, the New York Times said April 15 that Trump, seeing his popularity poll numbers drop, is blaming WHO for his virus mistakes.

“Recent polls show that more Americans disapprove of Mr Trump’s handling of the virus, than approve,” the Times said.

Asked if Trump was playing politics with human lives during a global health emergency, Abby Maxman, President & CEO of Oxfam America, told IPS: “Now more than ever, the Trump administration should prioritize the health and well-being of the American people, and the most vulnerable people around the globe, over politics.”

“This is a time when we need to put politics and blame aside and work together to save lives and recover from this global pandemic together”.

Asked if other donors will step in to fill the shortfall, if and when US cuts funding, Maxman said that WHO and other crucial agencies leading the response to this global health crisis must have the proper resources.

“We hope to see donors step up, and do whatever they can to ensure that WHO can continue its vital work.”

Asked how feasible is this considering the global economic meltdown triggered by the coronavirus crisis, she said the global economy has taken an historically devastating blow, but nations must prioritize funding core agencies and measures, which include the World Health Organization.

“This is something we simply must find the funds for,” she declared.

Donna McKay, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights warned that by halting funding to the WHO, President Trump is endangering the lives of millions of people around the world, particularly those most at risk during this historic pandemic.

“A global health emergency demands a global response,” she said.

The World Health Organization provides vital international assistance and coordination. That President Trump would halt funding to WHO in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic is reckless and risks contributing to widespread death and suffering, McKay said.

“This move comes at precisely the wrong time. The pandemic is beginning to spread from high-income countries to countries with weak health systems. We urgently need more concerted, coordinated, and effective action from the global community, not less. And we need global leadership that understands and embraces coordination and collaboration,” she declared.

When Trump first singled out WHO for criticism, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was blunt in his response, (even though he did not mention the US president by name): “If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it.”

Credit: WHO

Hitting back at Trump, without naming him, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the WHO, with thousands of its staff, is on the front lines, supporting Member States and their societies, especially the most vulnerable among them, with guidance, training, equipment and concrete life-saving services as they fight the virus.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19.”

This virus, he pointed out,“is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response.”

“Obviously, in such conditions, it is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities. Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis”.

The lessons learned will be essential to effectively address similar challenges, as they may arise in the future.

But now is not that time, he cautioned.

And it is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus, said Guterres.

In statement released April 14, Maxmansaid picking a fight with the World Health Organization during a pandemic is shortsighted, to say the least.

“Instead of bringing us together through this global crisis, President Trump has attacked leaders and agencies around the world, seeking to deflect blame for his own administration’s failings.”

“With this latest move to hold back funding from the WHO, President Trump is crippling any hopes for the responsible international cooperation and solidarity that is critical to save lives and restore the global economy,” warned Maxman.

“Withholding funding and blame-shifting means wasted time and needless death, misery, and poverty. And it gets the US and the world no closer to an end to this disaster.

“As we at Oxfam scale up efforts to respond to the crisis in more than 50 countries around the world, we see firsthand that strong coordination and funding is vital to save lives on the ground.

“No one individual, community, or country can deal with this crisis alone. We must work together, in our communities and across borders, with dignity and compassion. No one is safe until everyone is safe. President Trump must immediately reverse course and act like the global leader the world expects.”

The WHO’s total programme budget for 2018-2019 was $4.4 billion, increasing to $4.8 billion for 2020-2021.

WHO has two primary sources of revenue: assessed contributions (paid by member states and based on each country’s income and population) and voluntary contributions (additional funds provided by member states, private organizations and individuals.)

The US pays 22 percent of the budget, as it does with the United Nations.

McKay said while the WHO’s COVID-19 response has been imperfect, the idea of ending U.S. funding for this vital UN body defies logic and imperils millions.

For one, leading U.S. and international researchers are collaborating on global vaccine trials through WHO, which is a hub of such essential research.

“President Trump appears to be looking for a scapegoat for the pandemic. He is trying to deflect attention from the devastating U.S. death toll and his own repeated failures to respond promptly and coherently to the pandemic,” she noted.

McKay said: “Rather than attack the professionals at the WHO, President Trump should get health workers the personal protective equipment that they are dying without. He should collaborate with states and cities on a coordinated national response guided by science and human rights, not ideology and xenophobia. He must listen to medical experts at this time of great national and global peril.”

“All institutions responding to COVID-19, be it at a local, national, or global level, should be transparent and accountable. But eviscerating the capacity of the world’s essential health institution at a time like this is a profound mistake,” she declared.

Child sex abuse in Pakistan's religious schools is endemic

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PAKPATTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Muhimman proudly writes his name slowly, carefully, one letter at a time, grinning broadly as he finishes. He’s just 11 years old and was a good student who had dreams of being a doctor.

(1 of 6) Pakistani children take part in rally against child abuse, in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Associated Press collected dozens of police reports from police stations across Pakistan that allege sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools in Pakistan, where many of the country’s poorest study.

April 13, 2020

School frightens him now. Earlier this year, a cleric at the religious school he faithfully attended in the southern Punjab town of Pakpattan took him into a washroom and tried to rape him. Muhimman's aunt, Shazia, who wanted only her first name used, said she believes the abuse of young children is endemic in Pakistan’s religious schools. She said she has known the cleric, Moeed Shah, since she was a little girl and describes him as an habitual abuser who used to ask little girls to pull up their shirts.

“He has done wrong with boys and also with two or three girls,” Shazia said, recalling one girl the cleric brutalized so badly he broke her back. An investigation by The Associated Press found dozens of police reports, known here as First Information Reports, alleging sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools throughout Pakistan, where many of the country’s poorest study. The AP also documented cases of abuse through interviews with law enforcement officials, abuse victims and their parents. The alleged victims who spoke for this story did so with the understanding only their first names would be used.

There are more than 22,000 registered madrassas in Pakistan, teaching more than 2 million children. But there are many more religious schools that are unregistered. They are typically started by a local cleric in a poor neighborhood, attracting students with a promise of a meal and free lodging. There is no central body of clerics that governs madrassas. Nor is there a central authority that can investigate or respond to allegations of abuse by clerics, unlike the Catholic Church, which has a clear hierarchy topped by the Vatican.

The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised to modernize the curriculum and make the madrassas more accountable, but there is little oversight. Police say the problem of sexual abuse of children by clerics is pervasive and the scores of police reports they have received are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet despite the dozens of reports, none have resulted in the conviction of a cleric. Religious clerics are a powerful group in Pakistan and they close ranks when allegations of abuse are brought against one of them. They have been able to hide the widespread abuse by accusing victims of blasphemy or defamation of Islam.

Families in Pakistan are often coerced into “forgiving” clerics, said Deputy Police Superintendent Sadiq Baloch, speaking in his office in the country's northwest, toward the border with Afghanistan.

Overcome by shame and fear that the stigma of being sexually abused will follow a child into adulthood, families choose instead to drop the charges, he said. Most often, when a family forgives the cleric the investigation ends because the charges are dropped.

“It is the hypocrisy of some of these mullahs, who wear the long beard and take on the cloak of piety only to do these horrible acts behind closed doors, while openly they criticize those who are clean shaven, who are liberal and open minded,” Baloch said. “In our society so many of these men, who say they are religious, are involved in these immoral activities.”

‘I WANT THIS MULLAH HANGED’ Police officials say they have no idea how many children are abused by religious clerics in Pakistan. The officials said clerics often target young boys who have not yet reached puberty in part because of the restrictive nature of Pakistan's still mostly conservative society, where male interaction with girls and women is unacceptable. The clerics for the most part had access to and trust with boys, who are less likely to report a sexual assault.

Eight-year-old Yaous from Pakistan’s remote northern Kohistan region is one of those boys. Yaous’ father was a poor laborer who had no education and spoke only the local language of his area, yet he wanted to educate his son. He had heard of a religious school in Mansehra, several hundred kilometers (miles) south of his village, where other boys from the area had gone. Too poor to even own a phone, his father went for months without speaking to his son.

Yaous is small for his eight years. His features are slight. In an interview with the AP, with his uncle interpreting, Yaous' tiny body shivered as he told of his ordeal. It was near the end of December last year — a holiday at the madrassa. Most of the students had left. Only Yaous and a handful of students had stayed behind. His village was hours away, and the cost of transportation home was too much for his parents.

The other students had gone to wash their clothes and Yaous said he was alone inside the mosque with Qari Shamsuddin, the cleric. The sexual assault was unexpected and brutal. The boy said Shamsuddin grabbed his hand, dragged him into a room and locked the door.

“It was so cold. I didn’t understand why he was taking my warm clothes off,” Yaous said, his voice was barely a whisper. As Yaous remembered what happened, he buried his head deeper into his jacket. The cleric grabbed a stick, he said. It was small, maybe about 12 inches. The first few sharp slaps stung.

“The pain made me scream and cry, but he wouldn’t stop,” Yaous said. The boy was held prisoner for two days, raped repeatedly until he was so sick the cleric feared he would die and took him to the hospital.

At the hospital, Dr. Faisal Manan Salarzai said Yaous screamed each time he tried to approach him. Yaous was so small and frail looking, Salarzai called him the “baby.” “The baby was having a lot of bruises on his body — on his head, on his chest, on his legs, so many bruises on other parts of his body,” Salarzai said.

Suspicious, Salarzai ordered Yaous moved to the isolation ward where he examined him, suspecting he had been sexually assaulted. The examination revealed brutal and repetitive assaults. But Solarzai said Yaous' uncle refused to believe his nephew was sexually assaulted, instead he said the boy had fallen down. “He said the uncle finally said: ‘If news spreads in our area that he has been sexually assaulted it will be very difficult for him to survive in our area.'”

“He was not willing to talk about it or even think that he was sexually assaulted,” said Solarzai. But the evidence was overwhelming and the doctor contacted the police. The cleric was arrested and is now in jail. Police have matched his DNA samples to those found on Yaous. But despite the arrest, fellow clerics and worshippers at the Madrassah-e-Taleem-ul-Quran mosque located in a remote region of northwest Pakistan dispute the charges. They say Shamsuddin is innocent, the victim of anti-Islamic elements in the country. The clerics and worshippers also say the accusation is part of a conspiracy to discredit Pakistan’s religious leaders and challenge the supremacy of Islam, a rallying cry often used by right-wing religious clerics seeking to enrage mobs to assert their power.

Yaous’ father, Abdul Qayyum, said he was ashamed he had not spoken to his son in more than three months before the attack happened. “I want this mullah hanged. Nothing else will do,” Qayyum said. ‘FORGIVE ME’

Young boys are not the only victims of sexual abuse by religious clerics. Many young girls like Misbah, who is from a deeply conservative south Punjab village of Basti Qasi, have also been targeted by religious leaders.

Her father, Mohammad Iqbal, isn’t exactly sure how old Misbah is. He thinks she is 11 because in rural Pakistan many births are not registered or are registered much later, and it is just a guess when children are born. They share their small cinderblock structures with several goats and an extended family made up it seems of mostly children who play tag and run around the dirt compound. Misbah, who struggled for words, said she was raped in the mosque next door, where she had been studying the Quran for three years.

The assault happened one morning after she stayed behind to sweep the mosque. The other children had been sent home and the cleric, someone she trusted, asked Misbah to help. “I had just began to clean when he slammed shut the mosque door,” she said in her native Saraiki language. “I didn’t know why and then he suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into a nearby room. I was screaming and shouting and crying. She couldn't say how long the assault went on. All she could remember was screaming for her father to help her but he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop, she repeated.

It was her uncle, Mohammed Tanvir, who rescued her. He had been on his way to college but stopped at the mosque to use the washroom. He noticed a pair of child’s shoes outside the door. “Then I heard screaming from inside, she was screaming for her father,” Tanvir said. He smashed the door down saw his niece sprawled and naked on the floor. “It looked as if she had fainted,” he said. Her blood-stained pants were in a corner. The cleric knelt at his feet.

“‘Forgive me’ he kept saying to me,’” Tanvir recalled. The cleric was arrested but freed on bail. ‘SUCH A BEAST SHOULD NOT NE SPARED' In the wake of the attempted rape of Muhimman, the young boy who had proudly showed his writing skills, his aunt said there has been a concerted attempt to silence the family.

"The village people say these are our spiritual leaders and the imams of our religious places, and refuse to kick him out,” Shazia said After the attack on her nephew, she said, the villagers came to their home and pleaded with them to forgive the cleric, Moeed Shah, who had fled the area.

“They all came to our home and they know we are poor and he is an imam and they said we should forgive him but we won’t,” Shazia said. She said her father, Muhimman’s grandfather, refused. Shah has yet to be arrested, even though the assault was filmed by several village boys who broke down the door to the washroom and frightened Shah away as he tired to rape Muhimman.

Police say they are investigating and a charge has been filed, but Shah is a fugitive. Some of the neighbors near the mosque said police are not searching vigorously for him. They seemed angry but also resigned to the fact that he would not be jailed.

Muhimman's aunt was inconsolable. “Such a beast should not be spared at all,” Shazia said.

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Asim Tanvir in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report

Record oil output cuts fail to make waves in coronavirus

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SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - The minimal impact on oil prices from a global deal on record output cuts showed that oil producers have a mountain to climb if they are to restore market balance as the coronavirus shreds demand and sends stockpiles soaring, industry watchers said.

FILE PHOTO: A sticker reads crude oil on the side of a storage tank in the Permian Basin in Mentone, Loving County, Texas, U.S. November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Angus Mordant/File Photo

A day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and June - equal to nearly 10% of global supply - prices barely moved, oscillating in and out of positive and negative territory. [O/R]

Both Brent LCOc1 and WTI CLc1 have lost more than half of their value this year.

Graphic - Global oil prices down 50%-60% this year: here

The cut by OPEC+ may be more than four times deeper than the previous record set in 2008 and overall oil supply may shrink by twice that with other measures, but the reduction remains dwarfed by a demand drop predicted by some forecasters to be as much as 30 million bpd in April.

“Even if these cuts provide a floor to prices they will not be able to boost prices given the scale of inventory builds we are still staring at,” Energy Aspects analyst Virendra Chauhan said, referring to fast-filling storage amid the slide in demand from end-users.

“The absence of hard commitments from the United States or other G20 members is (a) shortcoming of the deal.”

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said that G20 nations had pledged to cut about 3.7 million bpd and that strategic reserves purchases would reach roughly 200 million barrels over the next couple of months, bringing the total reduction of oil in the market to about 19.5 million bpd.

But big producers such as Canada, Norway and the United States have yet to commit publicly to fixed quotas.

“The deal failed to reach the reduction levels anticipated by the market,” Takashi Tsukioka, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ), said in a statement.

“We hope OPEC+ will continue their talks to stabilise oil markets,” he said.

Meanwhile analysts said that while the core number in the deal suggests a near 10 million bpd cut, Middle East producers such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait may have to reduce by more than the 23% cut to which they signed up.

Graphic - Brent 6-month contango steeper after global output cut deal: here

FOCUS ON RESERVES

However, energy analysts at FGE expect oil stockpiles in developed nations to grow in the second quarter to levels last seen in 1982.

The Brent futures contango, a market structure whereby future prices are higher than those in the nearer term, deepened on Monday, for both a six-month horizon LCOc1-LCOc7 and for a year ahead. LCOc1-LCOc13

Graphic - Brent crude forward curve: here

FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind a crude oil pump jack on a drill pad in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, U.S. November 24, 2019. REUTERS/Angus Mordant/File Photo

“(But) as a result of the production cuts, the global oil market will have the largest spare capacity in at least a decade, leading to a flatter Brent crude oil curve,” Bank of America analysts said.

The next major focus for markets will be numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy on its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR).

A veteran Singapore oil trader, who declined to be named due to company policy, said that inventory build will continue, albeit at slower pace because of the OPEC+ pact. Saudi Arabia cut its crude selling prices to Asia on Monday, while lifting prices for the United States and leaving prices to Europe unchanged.

“Most of the SPR (held by countries around the world) are pretty full already. Probably China still has some room, but the rest, I doubt there is anything significant,” he added.

Highlighting the scarcity of available storage capacity, Australia’s Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor on Monday said that the country is working on an agreement to buy oil and store it with the U.S. strategic reserves.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, remains the outlier. Its refiners are set to raise crude oil throughput this month by 10% from March as the country where the coronavirus originated recovers from the outbreak faster than elsewhere.

“China is unlikely to make any firm commitment, especially as Far East consumers are still paying a premium for Mideast supplies versus western consumers,” one Beijing-based state oil company official said on condition of anonymity, citing company policy.

“Outside the government reserve stockpiling, which is highly guarded information, commercial reserve managers at national oil firms will only look at the economics and tankage space available to decide purchases,” said the official, referring to commercial reserve departments under state refiner Sinopec and PetroChina.

These centres operate independently from the SPR, the official said, and often act as a swing supplier to state oil refineries by loaning crude to plants at a higher price and making a profit when retrieving them at a lower cost.

“China ... will ultimately be constrained given this is a demand, not supply-led issue,” said Energy Aspects analyst Chauhan.

Elsewhere, India is diverting 19 million barrels of Middle East oil from state-run companies to SPRs to help refiners to offload surplus oil, three sources said.