Global crude oil demand growth drops this year

Paris-headquartered International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday that the 2005 daily average crude oil demand growth in the world will be expected to reach 1.26 million barrels, a decrease of 90,000 barrels than the original expectations, due to a certain degree of economic damage to North America brought about by hurricanes, according to a Xinhua report on October 11 in Paris.

The agency's forecast says that the daily average demand for crude oil this year is 83.4 million barrels. In 2006, the demand will add 1.75 million barrels to this year's demand figure, owing to overall strong demand, according to People's Daily on October 13.

The IEA said in its monthly petroleum market report on the same day that influenced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the global daily average oil supply in September was 83.8 million barrels, a drop of 845,000 barrels than that of the previous month. Hurricanes made the US Mexican Bay area's daily crude oil output in September drop by 1.2 million barrels.

In September, the daily average oil output of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) members increased by 100,000 barrels to reach 29.8 million barrels, since Iraq and Kuwait raised their oil production. The IEA believes that at present, the daily surplus production capability of the petroleum exporting countries was less than 2 million barrels. However, the countries will be expected to add additional 500,000 barrels to their daily surplus production by the end of this year or early next year.

The IEA report said that the present international oil prices slid from 70.85 US dollars a barrel after Hurricane Katrina to more than 60 US dollars per barrel. But there still exist risks. The report points out that if there appears "supply gap'' in international crude oil markets, it is still necessary for leaders of various countries to adopt active assistance measures, for example, putting strategic reserve oil on the markets.

By People's Daily Online