Oil demand set to outperform 10-year average in 2017: OPEC

by Dramelin 4:30 AM 0 comments

Global demand for oil could outdo the ten-year average in 2017 as the health of the world economy improves and demand for road transport continues to grow, OPEC`s latest monthly report has forecast. Despite this, OPEC is expecting growing demand for road transportation and the expanding petrochemical sectors in the U.S. and China to be driving factors in the continued growth in oil demand over the coming year. These trends are expected to supplement growing global economic activities, according to OPEC, which is forecasting growth of 3.2 percent in 2017. This is however down slightly from the 1.3 mb/d estimated for 2016, during which oil demand in OECD Europe, OECD Asia Pacific and other Asia was "better-than-expected" due to increase demand in the petrochemical and transportation sectors. The new data from the oil cartel Monday expects demand to grow at 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d), "well above" the 1.0 mb/d averages seen in the past decade.