OPEC further lowers its forecast for global oil demand

(Boursier.com) — Oil prices are on an upward trend this Tuesday despite the further lowering of OPEC forecasts. For the fourth month in a row, the cartel cut its oil demand growth forecast for this year and 2025 due to doubts about demand in China, India and other regions. According to OPEC’s monthly report, global oil demand would increase by 1.82 million barrels per day in 2024, or just under 2%, compared to an increase of 1.93 mbd forecast last month. then 1.54 mbd in 2025, compared to 1.64 mbd previously estimated.

The weaker outlook underscores the challenges facing OPEC+, which earlier this month postponed a plan to gradually increase production from December amid falling prices. However, the cartel’s forecasts remain significantly more optimistic than those of other forecasters, Wall Street banks and brokers, and even the Saudi oil company Aramco. They are approximately twice as high as those anticipated by the International Energy Agency. The IEA, which will update its own forecasts on Thursday, forecasts growth in oil demand of 860,000 bpd for this year.

A barrel of Brent from the North Sea rose by around 1% to $72.5 in London.