Opec on Thursday stuck to its forecast for oil demand growth for 2023 and 2024 and said it expects the global economy to grow at a faster pace this year.
World oil demand will rise by 2.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, compared with a growth of 2.44 million bpd this year, Opec said in its monthly oil market report.
Both forecasts were unchanged from last month’s assessment.
However, the oil producer’s group now expects the global economy to grow by 2.8 per cent this year, up slightly from its previous projection of 2.7 per cent growth.
“Emerging economies in Asia, notably India, as well as Brazil and Russia may outperform expectations with improvements in domestic demand and external trade,” Opec said.
“In 2024, solid global economic growth, amid continued improvements in China, is expected to further boost oil consumption,” the group said.
The Asian country's post-coronavirus economic recovery has lost momentum mainly due to a deepening property slump and weak consumer spending.
China, the world’s second-largest economy and top crude importer, has announced a string of stimulus measures, including halving the stamp duty on stock transactions and easing mortgage rates.
Opec raised its forecast for 2023 non-Opec supply growth to 1.7 million bpd from 1.6 million bpd and said the increase would be mostly driven by the US, Brazil, Norway, Kazakhstan, Guyana and China.
For 2024, non-Opec crude supply is expected to expand by 1.4 million bpd, unchanged from the previous month.
Opec’s crude oil production in September rose by 273,000 bpd to 27.75 million bpd, the group said, citing secondary sources.
On October 4, the Opec+ group of crude oil-producing states decided to stick to its current output policy.
Opec+ members Saudi Arabia and Russia have reaffirmed their collective supply cut of 1.3 million bpd to the end of the year.
The group has enforced total production curbs of 3.66 million bpd, or about 3.7 per cent of global demand.
This includes a reduction of 2 million bpd agreed on last year, and voluntary cuts of 1.66 million bpd, announced in April and extended to December 2024.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency has slashed its oil demand growth forecast for next year, citing a “deteriorating economic climate”, which will weigh on crude consumption.
Global oil demand is now expected to expand by nearly 900,000 bpd next year, down from the agency’s previous forecast of a growth of 1 million bpd, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund kept its global economic expansion forecast for 2023 at 3 per cent, below the 3.5 per cent expansion recorded last year, retaining the historical growth average of 3.8 per cent.
The fund estimates growth to hit 2.9 per cent next year, a 0.1 percentage point downgrade from the IMF forecast in July.
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School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
