The International Energy Agency (IEA) has cut its outlook for global oil demand for next year.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has a much stronger outlook for demand growth next year. Both the EIA and IEA have stressed the risks of growth as economic conditions worsen in the U.S. and Europe.
The IEA has reduced its estimates for next year’s world oil demand by 210,000 barrels a day to 90.5 million barrels a day. These estimates mean oil consumption next year will increase 1.4 percent from this year.
This year’s oil consumption will continue to increase, reaching 89.2 million barrels a day.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that, “The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will need to provide an average of 30.8 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter, according to the IEA. That’s about 300,000 a day more than the agency estimated in last month’s report. OPEC pumped 30.15 million a day in September.”
European oil stocks are not doing so well, and have plummeted to their lowest in close to nine years. European oil stocks began to fall in August. Supply issues are a contributing factor and include the loss of Libyan supplies, North Sea production outages, and pipeline sabotage in Nigeria, according to The Financial Times.
The price of Brent crude fell below $100 per barrel last week raising concerns for a global economic slowdown. However, November Brent prices rose 96 cents to $111.69 per barrel.
The cost of Brent oil has increased because of low inventories and supply disturbances.
According to the EIA, oil output from non-OPEC countries is estimated to rise 50,00 barrels per day to 53.11 million in 2012. A lot of the growth comes from countries like Brazil, Canada, China and the U.S.
The EIA added that the rise in oil demand from developing nations is still set to surpass the increase in production from non-OPEC countries.
That’s all for now,
Cori
