OPEC keeps oil demand growth forecast stable for 2022

By Firdevs Yuksel and Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu

ISTANBUL/IZMIR (AA) – The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Tuesday kept its global oil demand growth estimates for 2022 stable compared to last month's assessment.

Global oil demand is projected to grow by 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) to 100.3 million bpd in 2022, around 1 million bpd higher than in 2019, according to OPEC's latest monthly oil market report.

The organization said the world oil demand recorded a robust increase of 5.2 million bpd in the first quarter of this year, mainly due to a strong economic rebound, supported by further easing of COVID-19 containment measures, particularly in OECD countries.

OECD oil demand grew by 3.4 million bpd year-on-year, while non-OECD requirements increase by 1.9 million bpd as compared to the same quarter in 2021, according to the report.

Downward revisions in the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2022 oil demand growth took into account mainly current economic forecasts and other factors that could potentially reduce global oil requirements, including COVID-19 resurgence in China, it said.

- Global supply falls in May​​​​​​​

Global oil supply in May decreased by around 150,000 bpd compared to the previous month, averaging 98.75 million bpd.

The organization's monthly oil market report showed that OPEC crude oil production averaged 28.51 million bpd in May, a decrease of about 176,000 bpd month-on-month. Crude oil output rose mainly in Saudi Arabia, while production declined in Libya.

In Saudi Arabia, production increased by 60,000 bpd to around 10.42 million bpd. While Libya's oil output fell by 186,000 barrels per day to around 707,000 bpd.

In May, OPEC crude's share of total global production fell by 0.1 percentage point to 28.9% from the previous month.

Non-OPEC liquids production, including OPEC natural gas liquids, rose by just around 23,000 bpd in May compared to the previous month to average 70.2 million bpd, although this represented a year-on-year increase of 1.7 million bpd.

"Preliminary estimated decreases in production during May were mainly driven by Canada and the UK by 0.4 million bpd, while Eurasia and Latin America are expected to have seen growth in liquids output of 0.4 million bpd," the report said.