The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expects that next year will witness a “strong” increase in oil consumption, led by China and the Middle East, and in its report issued today, Wednesday, it maintained its expectations of relatively strong growth in global demand for crude during 2024, and OPEC’s expectations come earlier. than usual.
OPEC said in its monthly report that global demand for oil will rise to 1.85 million barrels per day in 2025. It also expected demand to grow by 2.25 million barrels per day during the current year, which is the same forecast as last month, so that the total global demand for oil will reach 104.4 million barrels. Daily 2024.
The organization attributed the growth expectations for global demand for crude oil in 2024 to estimates of global gross product growth at a faster pace than last year, amid greater than expected growth in the Chinese economy.
China, the largest importer of crude oil in the world, with a daily average exceeding 10 million barrels per day, is the second largest consumer of it, after the United States, with an average of 14.5 million barrels per day.
The organization presented its first forecast for next year in its monthly report issued this January. She said that publishing forecasts earlier than usual aims to provide markets with a long-term vision.
OPEC expects consistently stronger demand growth for 2024 compared to other institutions, such as the International Energy Agency. The two have disagreed in recent years over issues such as long-term demand and the need to invest in new supplies.
The OPEC report also indicated that member states’ oil production rose slightly last December, led by Nigeria, despite ongoing production cuts from the broader OPEC Plus alliance with the aim of supporting the market.
OPEC reduced target production levels after Angola left the group last month.
For its part, the International Energy Agency – which represents industrialized countries – expected last month that global oil consumption would rise by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2024.
Earlier today, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser expected that demand for oil would reach 104 million barrels per day in 2024, which means growth of about 1.5 million barrels per day, after demand increased to 2.6 million barrels per day in 2023.
Oil market
Meanwhile, oil markets declined on Wednesday after the release of economic growth data in China (the second largest consumer of crude oil in the world), which came slightly below expectations, raising concerns about future increases in demand, while the strength of the dollar affected investors’ appetite for risk.
Brent crude futures fell 2% to $76.72 per barrel by 10:20 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 2.4% to $70.95 per barrel.
Brent crude rose slightly yesterday, while West Texas Intermediate crude fell with weak fundamentals in the United States, but the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea increased fears that tankers would be forced to change their course to avoid the region, which led to increased costs and the amount of time required for delivery.
