World oil demand
to increase in 2010
LONDON/NEW YORK.— Growing world oil use will most
likely outpace the rate of new supplies in 2010,
eroding the huge stockpiles of crude which have
mounted around the world since the beginning of the
global economic crisis, a Reuters news brief signals.
According to a poll of 10 important oil-tracking
analysts and organizations, the oil demand is
predicted to rise 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd)
next year.
"The key question for prices is supply," said
Costanzo Jacazio, analyst at Barclays Capital. "2010
is really a bridging year – if the economies
continue to perform as well as they have been doing
during the early stages of the recovery, then I
think by 2011 we'll be seeing the demand numbers at
or above where they were in 2008," he added.
At the end of September, the International Energy
Agency assessed oil stocks in the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 60
days of forward cover, 120 million barrels above the
five-year average.
The expected demand increase in 2010 will be the
first year to show average growth since 2007, before
record prices and the economic crisis slashed
consumption.
Global oil demand has fallen by almost 2 percent
since 2007, when average annual consumption hit an
all-time high around 86.2 million barrels daily.
The steep drop in demand saw oil prices crash
from record highs of almost $150 a barrel in July
2008 to below $33 a barrel in December last year.
Since then prices have more than doubled to just
below $80 a barrel.
