SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) published its Monthly Oil Market Report-May 2024. The report foresees global oil demand to remain steady during the current year.
The coalition of oil producing countries kept the oil demand forecasts for the current year more or less unchanged from the previous month’s forecast of 2.2 million barrels per day (mb/d).
The minor upward adjustments to Q1 data were offset by downward revision to the Middle East demand in the second and third quarters. OPEC expects OECD demand to rise by 0.3 mb/d, while the non-OECD demand is seen surging higher by nearly 2.0 mb/d.
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Also, OPEC foresees robust oil demand growth of 1.8 mb/d in 2025, when compared with the current year.
According to the report, the crude oil prices witnessed modest jump by 5.8% during the month of April this year, to average at around $89.12 per barrel. The oil futures prices too rose during the month.
The refinery margins continued to decline in April, mainly driven by falling naphtha and diesel crack spreads. The global refinery intake rates increased by 170 tb/d in April to average 80.0 mb/d. However, it stood lower when compared with 1.1 mb/d during the same month a year before.
The Oil Market Report kept world economic growth forecasts for 2024 and 2025 unchanged at 2.8% and 2.9% respectively.