Testing times beckon for net zero-focused oil frms

摘要

International oil companies (IOCs) have, like the rest of the world, endured a brutally tough 2020 courtesy of the grim global impacts of the Covid-19 pan- demic. But 2021 and the years that follow promise to be even tougher, for a rather diferent set of reasons. Financially, there is light at the end of the tunnel as the beginning of a global vaccine roll-out portends an economic recovery in the second half of the year. The OECD is forecasting global GDP growth of 4.2pc in 2021, and noted in its latest Economic Outlook earlier this month that “the global economy will gain momentum over the coming two years, with global GDP at pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021”.