In its monthly report, the cartel forecast that demand for its crude oil would rise to average around 29.21 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2015, up by around 430,000 on its previous estimate.
Read More It's over! Stocks and oil may finally break up Oil prices rose following the report, with Brent crude climbing around 0.7 percent to trade at $58.15 per barrel, while U.S. crude rallied around 1.5 percent to $52.44 at around 13.00 London time. "Crude oil prices started 2015 at a near six-year low, amid plentiful global oil supplies that have pushed oil prices down by almost 60 percent since June 2014, with oil demand growth yet to show signs of accelerating," OPEC said. "This time the sharp fall in prices has been mainly driven by excess supply. As a result, lower prices are likely to help to accelerate the pace of oil demand growth this time," the group added.
Crude oil prices continued their
downward trajectory throughout January, with "overflowing oil supplies and
sluggish demand," weighing on prices, OPEC said. Both Brent and U.S. crude
ended below $50 per barrel for the first time in over five-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, OPEC slashed its forecast for non-OPEC oil supply on Monday to
average 850,000 bpd in 2015. This was down 420,000 bpd on last month's
forecast, with OPEC attributing the cut largely to the slowdown in the U.S.
shale boom. "U.S. onshore drilling activity in parts of both emerging and
mature oil production regions declined by 288 rigs from a peak of 1,551 in
early October to 1,263 rigs in January, because of unattractive economic
returns," the report found. Read More OPEC is to blame for the oil swoon:
BIS OPEC's report comes after the Bank of International Settlements said rather
than the global glut of crude, OPEC's recent decision not to cut production"has
been key to the fall" in the price of oil. Other factors, such as
increased indebtedness in the oil sector in recent years have also exacerbated
it, the bank said.
Source: Yahoo Finance.
No comments:
Post a Comment