Wednesday 10 February 2016

Oil demand growth to ease back in 2016, says IEA

Oil demand growth is forecast to ease back "considerably" in 2016.

It will be reduced to 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d), according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Oil demand peaked to 1.6mb/d in 2015.

In its Oil Market Report (OMR) for February, the IEA stated demand will be pulled down by "notable slowdowns" in Europe, China and the US.

Global oil supply dropped by 0.2mb/d to 96.5mb/d in January as higher OPEC output only partly offset lower non-OPEC production, it added.

It believes non-OPEC output will decline to 57.1mb/d this year.

The report added: "OPEC oil output rose by 280,000 barrels per day in January to 32.63mb/d as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and a sanctions-free Iran all turned up the taps. Supplies from the group during January stood nearly 1.7mb/d higher year-on-year."

Keisuke Sadamori, IEA's Director of Energy Markets and Security, said there will be a "robust supply" of oil this year and India will overtake China as "the centre of oil demand".