OPEC keeps estimate for global oil demand growth in 2014 unchanged at 1.2%, or 1 million barrels/day, to total of about 90.8 barrels/day; increasing output from non-OPEC countries reducing demand for OPEC crude

Cindy Allen

August 9, 2013 (Bloomberg LP) – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept estimates for global oil demand growth in 2014 unchanged amid a stable outlook for the world economy.

World oil consumption will increase by 1 million barrels a day, or 1.2 percent, next year to about 90.8 million a day, the group’s Vienna-based secretariat said in its monthly market report today. Increasing output from countries outside OPEC means demand for the organization’s crude will slide to 29.7 million barrels a day, or about 600,000 a day less than its 12 members pumped last month, the report showed.

Brent crude futures have gained about 2.8 percent in the past three months, trading near $107 a barrel in London today, amid signs the slowdown in China’s expansion has stabilized, U.S. unemployment retreating and the recession in European economies is easing. OPEC agreed to tighten compliance with its official production target of 30 million barrels a day at its last meeting in May. The group will next meet on Dec. 4.

OPEC said group production fell 97,000 barrels a day to 30.3 million last month amid declines in Libya and Iraq, citing an average of secondary sources for the estimates. Output in the North African nation slumped 124,400 barrels a day to about 1.1 million while Iraq’s production slid by 50,900 a day to 2.97 million a day.

The organization increased its 2014 forecast for oil supply from other nations by 20,000 barrels a day. Non-OPEC producers, led by the U.S. and Canada, will bolster production by 1.15 million barrels a day in 2014 to 55.1 million a day, according to the report.

OPEC’s projection for global oil demand growth is similar to that of the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based adviser to oil-consuming nations, which earlier today forecast that consumption will increase 1.1 million barrels a day in 2014 to 92 million a day.

The group’s members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

-- Editors: Stephen Voss, Rachel Graham

To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

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