IEA revises up oil demand forecasts for 2021, 2022

PARIS: The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised up global oil demand forecasts for 2021 and 2022.

The ongoing energy crisis has prompted a switch to oil, and therefore global oil demand is set to rise by 5.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2021 and 3.3 mb/d in 2022, IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report published on Thursday.

Global oil demand is expected to reach 96.3 mb/d in 2021 and 99.6 mb/d in 2022, IEA's revised estimate shows.

Record coal and gas prices, as well as rolling black-outs are prompting the power sector and energy-intensive industries to turn to oil, which has pushed up global oil demand, Xinhua news agency quoted the Agency as saying.

As for world oil supply, the IEA projected a sharp rise in October, with the US' output set to bounce back from Hurricane Ida, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+) ready to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day for November this year.

Higher energy prices could lead to lower industrial activity and a slowdown in economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the IEA warned. (IANS)