.png)
The International Energy Agency (IEA) today announced that it had revised up its forecast of global oil demand growth in 2016 to 1.6m barrels a day (b/d) and forecast a further 1.3m b/d increase in demand in 2017.
This would mean oil demand growing this year by its highest rate in absolute terms since before the 2008 global financial crisis.
The IEA said demand is growing unexpectedly strongly due to lower oil prices.
World oil demand was 94.5m b/d in 2015 and is forecast to reach 97.4m b/d in 2017.
“…on the planning assumption that OPEC oil production grows modestly in 2017, we expect to see global oil stocks build slightly in the first half of 2017 before falling slightly more in the second half of 2017. For the year as a whole, there will be a very small stock draw of 0.1 million b/d,” the IEA said in its June monthly report.
Oil fell from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014 to under $30 a barrel in January this year. Prices have since risen by almost 100 per cent despite growing OPEC output. Supply interruptions in Canada, Libya and Nigeria are the main factors contributing to the recent buoyancy of oil prices, analysts say.
For full coverage of Middle East business, see MEED