FT: “Opec will need to sustain production at its current level of almost 30m barrels a day if badly depleted oil inventories in the developed world are to be rebuilt, according to the International Energy Agency.”
“In its widely followed monthly report, the west’s energy watchdog said stronger than expected demand in the US and other industrialised nations had drained oil stocks to the lowest level in five years, tightening the market and supporting prices.
Oil inventories in the OECD group of countries dropped by 1.5m barrels a day in the last three months of 2013, the steepest quarterly decline since 1999.
“Far from drowning in oil, markets have had to dig deeply into inventories to meet unexpectedly strong demand,” the report said.
Rising oil production from North America has led many forecasters to predict a supply glut and a decline in oil prices this year. But a recovery in demand in Europe and the United States and supply problems in a number of Opec countries have supported prices.
….The Paris-based agency now expects world fuel demand to expand by 1.3m b/d to 92.6m b/d in 2014, a 50,000 b/d increase on its previous forecast. It sees the ‘call’, or demand for Opec oil, averaging 30m b/d in the second half of the year.”
Future Today
