The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday cut its demand forecast for the first time since it was made in July of last year on concerns around China’s economy.
This comes as the group is set to begin unwinding a layer of production cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day from October. Despite current cuts, the group’s output is increasing and was up 117,00 bpd month-over-month in July to 40.9 million bpd, led by Saudi Arabia.
OPEC now sees demand rising by 2.11 million bpd this year, versus previous expectations of 2.25 million bpd. That is still well above the International Energy Agency’s forecast of 970,000 bpd, which will be updated tomorrow.
It lowered its forecast for next year’s demand growth to 1.78 million bpd, versus 1.85 million bpd previously. Demand grew at 1.4 million bpd on average annually before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saudi exports to China are expected to fall in September to 43 million barrels, down about 3 million barrels from August, as demand there is slowing.
Global oil demand will need to grow at a faster rate to absorb the rise in production as OPEC rolls off some of those cuts. U.S. and Chinese demand disappointed in the first seven months of the year. We’ve got a nice dive into the factors at play here.
In another corner of the energy world, petrochemical producers in Europe and Asia are facing troubles amid a build out of capacity in China and as higher energy costs in Europe are depressing margins, Mohi Narayan and Joyce Lee report.
Some 24% of global petrochemical capacity is at risk of permanent closure by 2028 due to weak margins, consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates. Asian propylene production margins could see a loss of around $20 per metric ton this year.
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical has shut two of its three naphtha crackers for a year, and in Malaysia, PRefCHem – a venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco – has had its cracker shut since earlier this year.
