Oil demand will slow next year compared with previous estimates, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
The IEA cut its growth forecast by 230,000 barrels per day. That, however, still represents an increase in daily consumption next year, as demand will rise by 900,000 barrels per day to reach 93.3 million barrels.
United States oil will propel output outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which provides nearly 40 percent of the world’s oil, to a record growth of 1.9 million barrels per day this year. But that pace will slow to 1.3 million barrels per day next year.
Weaker demand projections for former Soviet Union countries and oil-exporting nations drove the revision, the IEA said in its monthly “Oil Market Report.”
Oil prices have been in a free-fall in recent weeks. On Friday, prices for Brent crude, an international benchmark, flirted with a five-year low of $62 per barrel. The price declines reflect a global glut that’s spurred in part by a rapid increase in U.S. production, OPEC’s decision not to cut output and weaker global demand.
