Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
World oil demand growth is estimated to have reached 1.53 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2017, well above the initial forecast and maintaining the consistently healthy growth seen over the last three years, according to OPEC’s December Oil Market Report.
European members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) contributed most of the upward revisions, due to solid progress in the industrial sector in addition to strong transportation demand, said the cartel.
“In non-OECD, China oil demand growth has been robust in 2017 as the petrochemical and the transportation sectors continued to expand at a healthy pace and the overall economic activities improved from initial expectations,” said the report.
For 2018, the main assumptions behind the OPEC forecast are firm economic growth, lending support to industrial and construction fuels in both OECD and non-OECD.
“Expansion in the transportation sector Is expected to provide the bulk of oil demand growth. Growth in petrochemical demand is projected to be one of the fastest-growing contributors in US, China, South Korea and the Middle East,” said the cartel.
As such, world oil demand growth is estimated at 1.51 mb/d in 2018, compared to 1.26 mb/d in the initial forecast, according to OPEC’s estimates.
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