Baku, Azerbaijan, May 16
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Global oil demand growth for 2018 has been revised slightly downwards from 1.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 1.4 mb/d, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Oil Market Report.
“While recent data confirms strong growth in 1Q18 and the start of 2Q18, we expect a slowdown in 2H18 largely attributable to higher oil prices. World oil demand is expected to average 99.2 mb/d in 2018,” said the report.
This is while global oil supplies held steady in April at close to 98 mb/d, according to IEA estimates.
“Robust non-OPEC output offset lower OPEC production. Strong non-OPEC growth, led by the US, pushed global supplies up 1.78 mb/d on a year ago,” said the report.
IEA experts believe that non-OPEC output will grow by 1.87 mb/d in 2018, a slightly higher rate than seen in last month's report.
“On the supply side, in today's uncertain geopolitical climate, higher production from the US will be an important contribution to compensating for lower volumes from elsewhere. For now, this report shows a modest increase in our estimate for US output growth in 2018, mindful of the current logistics constraints that have manifested themselves in the extraordinary widening of the differential between WTI prices at Midland and the Gulf Coast to $15/bbl. We note that several projects are in development to ease regional bottlenecks and to help rising US production reach markets,” said the report.
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