Energy......
The
International Energy Agency once again cut its outlook for global oil
demand Thursday, but warned significant supply risks continue to
threaten the market.
The downward revision by the Paris-based
consumer group reflects similar moves by other industry forecasters
earlier this week as concerns over the state of the global economy
continue to weigh on demand expectations.
In its monthly oil
market report published Wednesday, the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries downgraded its forecast of world oil demand growth
by 40,000 barrels a day for 2013, while the U.S. Energy Information
Administration cut its outlook by 140,000 barrels a day.
In its
closely-watched monthly oil market report published Thursday, the IEA
cut its expectations of oil demand growth to 795,000 barrels a day down
from 820,000 barrels a day last month.
The decline reflects
exceptionally weak demand from industrialized countries, particularly in
Europe where consumption in 2013 is expected to be the lowest since the
1980s, the IEA said.
The bleak economic picture is reflected in
demand for oil products, with initial statistics showing that gasoline
consumption may have outpaced consumption of gasoil--commonly used in
industrial processes--last year and is expected to do so again this
year; helped by strong demand for the transport fuel in China and Saudi
Arabia, the IEA said.
However, gasoil demand growth is expected to outpace gasoline demand growth once more in 2014, it added.
Since
early February the price of the European benchmark Brent crude has
fallen around 10% to hover around $105 a barrel, its lowest level since
November last year.
Nonetheless, the IEA warned that significant risks to the market remain.
"There
are signs that some of the recent easing of upward price pressures
could be relatively short‐lived," the IEA said in its closely-watched
monthly oil market report.
For the first time in months, the
agency cut its expectations of non-OPEC supply growth for the year as
infrastructure maintenance, extreme weather and geopolitical insecurity
affected output in the first quarter of the year.
The IEA also highlighted significant risks to OPEC supply.
Nigerian
oil production fell to a four-month low in March and could fall further
following a resurgence in oil-theft-related damage to pipelines and
renewed threats of militant attacks against the country's oil
infrastructure, the IEA warned.
The IEA also warned that
insecurity in Libya is threatening to derail the country's production
outlook. Output fell by 40,000 barrels a day last month to 1.36 million
barrels a day, according to the IEA's data. That is 150,000 barrels a
day lower than the official figure provided by Libya to OPEC in its most
recent report, published Wednesday.
Iranian output also remains
constrained by strict Western sanctions with exports falling to 1.1
million barrels a day in March, down from 1.26 million barrels a day in
February, the IEA said.
Source by Commodity Insights
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