LOC13:03
10:03 GMT
PARIS, Oct 13 (KUNA) -- Growth in demand for crude oil in 2016 will slow considerably after a five-year-high spike in demand growth during 2015, spurred by sharp declines in oil prices and inventory build, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.
In its monthly "Oil Market Report (OMR)", the agency forecast that oil demand growth next year would slow to 1.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) and average demand would reach 95.7 mbpd. In 2015, oil demand growth is expected to average 1.8 mbpd for an average consumption of 94.5 mbpd. This year's figure corresponds to a five-year high for growth in oil demand, according to the latest IEA estimates.
"The demand outlook for 2016 looks markedly softer as downgrades to the macroeconomic outlook and expectations that crude oil prices will not repeat the heavy declines seen in 2015 filter through," the OMR indicated.
It said that 2016 would again see the global demand growth pattern return to "its long-term trend" in contrast to "surprisingly strong consumption" during this year.
At the same time, world oil supply was steady at 96.6 mbpd in September "as lower
OPEC crude supply rose by 90,000 b/d in September to 31.72 mbpd as record Iraqi output more than offset a dip in Saudi supply.
A slowdown in forecast demand growth and slightly higher non-OPEC supply lowers the 2016 'call' on OPEC by 200,000 b/d from last month's OMR which put it at 31.1 mbpd.
OECD commercial inventories extended recent gains and rose by 28.8 million barrels in August to stand at 2.943 billion barrels at the end of that month, which is nearly double the average 15 million barrel stock build regularly recorded for August. (end)
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