Energy

April 11, 2013

OPEC joins US in lowering 2013 oil demand growth forecast

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, on Wednesday trimmed its forecast for global growth in oil demand in 2013, becoming the second of the world’s closely watched oil forecasters this week to predict weaker consumption.

The move by the organisation in its monthly report follows a similar downward revision to oil demand growth in 2013 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday.

OPEC now expects that world oil demand will rise by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, a cut of 40,000 bpd from the previous estimate. It cited weaker-than-expected oil use in developed economies, particularly Europe and Japan. “Monthly data that is starting to emerge for the first quarter of 2013 suggests that OECD demand may be disappointing compared with our previous assessment,” said the report by economists at OPEC’s Vienna headquarters.

OPEC, the source of more than a third of the world’s oil, has been flagging the prospect that demand may prove weaker than expected due to the euro zone’s economic problems and uncertainties about the outlook for the U.S. economy. The EIA had on Tuesday also cut its 2013 world oil demand growth forecast by 50,000 bpd, although it still sees a stronger rate of growth in oil demand than OPEC of 960,000 bpd.