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Friday, 25 July, 2008, 15:10 GMT | more prices >>

IEA sees oil demand slowing



By Upstream staff 

The world oil market is becoming more balanced, demand is falling and oil prices should soften as a result, International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Nobuo Tanaka said today.

"Demand is slowing down .... we are moving towards a more balanced market," Tanaka told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris.

Asked whether Opec should raise its output, the IEA head said oil inventories should replenish if the group kept pumping at current levels.

"If they continue the current level of production, we will see stocks replenishing, so the current level of production will have to continue," he said.

Opec's head of research Hasan Qabazard also said on the sidelines of the same conference that demand was falling in the world's biggest energy consumer the US.

"There is lower gasoline demand in the US which is translating into lower crude (demand), roughly 400,000-450,000 barrels per day," he told reporters.

He said the 13 members of the producer group, including Iraq that does not have a formal output target, were pumping a total of 32.25 million bpd.

A Reuters survey had found they pumped 32.06 million bpd in March, slightly lower than in February.


Thursday, 10 April, 2008, 11:50 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 10 April, 2008, 11:50 GMT

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