PARIS, Jan 17: Despite a weak economic growth, global oil demand grew by 390,000 barrels per day last year, bringing consumption to 76.9 million bpd, estimates released Friday by the International Energy Agency showed.
The IEA revised its estimated growth figure upwards by 60,000 bpd for 2002, but left it unchanged at 1.04 million bpd for this year in a monthly oil market and stocks assessment that came five days after Opec agreed to raise its output quota.
Despite the slow pace of the economic recovery, global oil demand grew faster than expected in late 2002, driven by cold weather, low Japanese nuclear power output and robust gains in Chinese apparent demand, the IEA report said.
On Sunday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) agreed to increase production quotas by 1.5 million bpd from February to help curb surging crude prices.
In December, oil production worldwide fell by two million bpd to 76.43 million because of a strike in Venezuela, the IEA said.
A crippling strike in Venezuela resulted in a loss of an estimated 80 million barrels of crude and product supply in December.
Opec production minus Iraq fell by 1.67 million bpd in December to 22.44 million, with increased output by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar failing to make up for the Venezuelan shortfall.
The IEA estimated that Venezuela, paralyzed by an oil-sector strike since December 2, produced 710,000 bpd last month, compared with 2.65 million in November.
It will take months before oil and product exports are normalised and only then at reduced levels, the IEA warned, estimating lost capacity represented “three billion dollars in lost annual export revenues” for Caracas.
Non-Opec output rose by 182,000 bpd in December, led by advances in Mexico, Alaska and Brazil.
But because additional output will take time reaching consumers, the current market is faced with a short-term supply imbalance, the report said.
The loss of Venezuelan supplies leaves US crude stocks barely above miminum operational levels in mid-January, at 272 million bpd.
The situation should ease once Venezuelan production resumed and demand fell at the end of winter in the the northern hemisphere, the IEA forecast.
But the agency nonetheless expects oil markets to remain unsettled because of reduced spare capacity, low inventories and uncertainty surrounding Iraq.
Consequently, the market is off balance and has a greater exposure to unforeseen developments such as weather, accidents and unscheduled maintenance of oil infrastructures, it said. —AFP