OPEC: Oil demand will return to the same level as before the pandemic

Follow-up- INA

 OPEC, today, Thursday, stuck to its expectations of a strong recovery in global demand for oil in the remainder of 2021, and expected that oil use would rise further in 2022 to similar levels before the pandemic, led by growth in China and India.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly report that demand will rise by 3.4 percent next year to 99.86 million barrels per day, with an average of more than 100 million barrels per day in the second half of 2022.

“In 2022, the strong expectations of economic growth are supposed to stimulate In addition to improving the containment of Covid-19 through accelerating vaccination programs, effective treatment and acquiring natural immunity, especially in emerging and developing countries, in addition to frequent examination procedures, oil consumption next year will reach levels similar to before the pandemic.
The report reflects OPEC's confidence that global demand will recover strongly from the pandemic, allowing the organization and its allies to further ease the unprecedented production restrictions that were applied in 2020. Some analysts had expected a peak in oil demand in 2019.
The OPEC report said that average demand in 2019 reached 99.98 million barrels per day.
OPEC also kept its demand growth forecast of 5.95 million barrels per day in 2021.
OPEC expects that demand for oil in China and India will exceed pre-pandemic levels next year. It said the United States would have the largest contribution to demand growth in 2022, but that the United States' use of oil would remain slightly below 2019 levels
. OPEC said global economic growth was expected to slow to 4.1 percent next year from 5.5 percent in 2021, and to remain unchanged backed by government stimulus, the outlook "mainly depends on developments related to COVID-19".

Oil traded below $74 a barrel after the OPEC report. The price has risen more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year with the help of supply cuts from OPEC and its allies within the framework of the OPEC + group.
The report showed an increase in OPEC production and more supply is expected from competitors in 2022, including US shale oil producers.

OPEC+ agreed in April to gradually ease production cuts from May to July. Thursday's report showed that OPEC production in June rose 590,000 bpd to 26.03 million bpd.