Low gas prices in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, on March 30. | Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Oil and gas companies were already facing structural problems before Covid-19 and are in long-term decline. As countries across the world go into lockdown in response to Covid-19, economies are in free fall. Almost every sector is taking a hit, hemorrhaging jobs and value. And almost every sector will be shaped, for years to come, by the speed, amount, and the nature of public assistance it receives.