"Slowing oil demand growth has outpaced downgrades to economic forecasts," said the IEA in its monthly oil market report."IEA" is the international agency.
Oil demand in the fourth quarter surprised the IEA by falling 300,000 barrels a day on the same period the previous year. The IEA forecast last month slight growth in fourth quarter demand, but a combination of mild weather, economic weakness and high crude prices reduced consumption for the first time since the depths of the great recession in the third quarter of 2009.
The IEA slashed a further 500,000 barrels a day from its demand forecast for the first quarter of 2012, citing the same "growth-impeding" combination of economic woes in Europe and continued high prices due to the tensions between Iran and the West.
Oil demand growth for the whole of 2012 was cut by 200,000 barrels a day to 1.1 million barrels a day.
I have a devil of a time keeping the IEA and EIA straight.
And then, of course, there's EIEIO. But I think that has something to do with equal imployment equal incentive opportunities. Or a farm.
I wouldn't put a lot of stock into the latest IEA estimate; I think the IEA puts out a new estimate every month. I am not too excited about the latest estimate that says growth will slow from 1.3 million bbls per day to 1.1 million bbls per day -- that's still growth of more than a million bbls a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment