OPEC Sees Robust Global Oil Demand Growth in 2023 After 2022 Chinese Contraction

OPEC on Tuesday said it expected to see robust global oil demand growth in 2023. It is a with potential economic upside coming from a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policies. This year have pushed the country’s oil use into contraction for the first time in years.

World oil demand in 2023 will rise by 2.25 million barrels per day (BPD), or about 2.3%. This is what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a monthly report. The forecast was steady from November, after a series of downgrades.

“Although global economic uncertainties are high and growth risks in key economies remain tilted to the downside, upside factors that may counterbalance current and upcoming challenges have emerged as well,” OPEC said in the report.

“A resolution of the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe and a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policy could provide some upside potential,” the report said in a separate section.

Chinese demand, hit by COVID containment measures, will average 14.79 million bpd in 2022, down 180,000 bpd from 2021, OPEC said. OPEC figures in another publication, the Annual Statistical Bulletin, show it rising in the 2017-2021 period.

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Source: Reuters

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