On Wednesday, OPEC cut its forecast for crude oil demand in 2021 while keeping its 2022 projection unchanged.
Now, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) predicts oil demand this year to grow by 5.82 million bpd from the previous expectations of 5.96 million bpd. The downward revision was mainly driven by data for the first three quarters of the year.
For next year, OPEC maintained the demand growth forecast of 4.2 million bpd.
However, the group estimated that the soaring natural gas prices could help to float the demand for oil as industrial gas consumers start to shift to oil.
On Wednesday, the European gas at the Dutch TTF hub stood at USD177/boe. It was even higher than Brent crude price record high of USD147/barrel in 2008. In comparison, by 15.00 GMT yesterday, Brent crude prices were at USD83/barrel although Russian President Vladimir Putin said oil prices could reach USD100/barrel.
Regarding OPEC, the demand for the group’s crude was raised by 100,000 bpd to 27.8 million bpd. Likewise, for 2022, the demand forecast was also adjusted up by 100,000 bpd to 28.8 million bpd.
In September, the group’s crude output jumped by roughly 490,000 bpd to 27.33 million bpd, according to secondary sources.
