Industry and Energy

Industry and Energy

IEA revises global oil demand outlook

10 September 2009 13:56 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. The International Energy Agency on Thursday raised its forecast for global oil demand by nearly 500,000 barrels a day for both this year and 2010, MarketWatch reported.
The IEA, energy adviser to 28 developed countries, cited stronger-than-expected economic data in OECD North America and non-OECD Asia.
The agency said global demand is now expected to average 84.4 million barrels a day in 2009 and 85.7 million barrels a day in 2010.
Still, 2009 demand is expected to be 2.2% lower than it was last year.
"Despite these upward adjustments, demand is poised to remain weak in the OECD for the reminder of this year, while the underlying strength of non-OECD demand has been obscured by massive stock building in China," the IEA said in its monthly report released on Thursday.
"Moreover, the specter of a double-dip, ’W-shaped’ recession, which would undermine oil-demand growth next year, cannot be entirely discounted," the agency said.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has 30 member countries, including Germany, the U.S. and Japan.
After the report was released, October oil futures traded up 90 cents, or 1.3%, at $72.21 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
In its August report, the IEA had revised its oil-demand forecast upward by 190,000 barrels a day for 2009 and 70,000 barrels a day for 2010.
In other oil news, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, as expected, decided to keep its official output quota unchanged, but also warned that the oil market remains oversupplied.
"Since the market remains over-supplied, and given downside risks associated with the extremely fragile [economic] recovery, the conference once again agreed to leave current production levels unchanged for the time being," the OPEC cartel said in a statement dated Thursday in Vienna.