PARIS, Nov 10 (KUNA) -- Forecasts for oil demand growth in 2016 and 2017 show no signs of significant increase, while global oil supplies continue to edge upwards ahead of the important November 30 OPEC meeting that could help balance markets, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
A slowdown in activity in several industrialised OECD countries and in some Asian economies has kept demand growth in check and even brought it down slightly from forecasts earlier in the year.
Moreover, the downward revision is being carried over into 2017, according to the IEA's monthly Oil Market Report.
"Oil demand growth is forecast to ease to 1.2 mbpd in 2016, having peaked at a five-year high of 1.8 mbpd in 2015, due to slowdowns in the OECD Americas and China. A similarly paced expansion is foreseen in 2017," the report noted.
In effect, average daily oil demand will only reach 96.3 mbpd this year and rise further to 97.5 mbpd in 2017.
At the same time, global oil supply rose 800,000 bpd in October to 97.8 mbpd after higher production in both OPEC and non-OPEC countries. Output levels are now running at 800,000 bpd above levels recorded at the same time a year earlier.
OPEC group producers hiked output in October by 230,000 bpd to a record 33.83 mbpd, according to the IEA.
Higher Nigerian, Libyan and Iraqi production accounted largely for the increase, which puts OPEC output above the 33.0 mbpd ceiling it is seeking to put in place in November.
Given the relative imbalance, stock build is resuming in a number of areas and for the second month in a row the overall OECD inventory has increased.
In September, OECD stocks went up by 17.1 million barrels to 3.068 billion barrels and this trend could continue in the absence of production agreement by OPEC at the end of this month, the IEA remarked. (End) jk.tg