The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Thursday cut world
oil demand growth for the current quarter to 1.97% from 2.1% a month
ago citing warmer winter weather in the northern hemisphere and the
higher price of gasoline.
"Late winter in North America along with the high price of
transport fuels appears to be reducing regional oil consumption in the
fourth quarter leading to a downward revision of 0.1 million barrels a
day for that quarter," the group said in its monthly oil market report.
OPEC trimmed its world oil demand growth forecast for this
year to 1.4% from 1.5% last month, but kept the first quarter of next
year unchanged at 1.8%.
Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency in its
monthly oil market report made a sharper cut in its oil demand growth
forecasts mostly attributing the revision to signs super high oil
prices had begun to depress demand for motor fuels in the U.S. OPEC
ministers, who are meeting formally Dec. 5 in Abu Dhabi to discuss
production policy, are also meeting informally this week at the OPEC
Heads of State summit in Riyadh.
However, for now, senior officials from the group this week
ruled out an increase in output to calm high prices saying the market
is sufficiently supplied and global oil inventories are adequate
despite recent draws. In its monthly report, OPEC said oil stocks in
the world's most advanced economies had fallen in September and were
expected to fall in October and throughout the winter, but were not yet
showing signs of "alarming" tightness.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
industry-held stocks in the third quarter of this year are estimated at
52.8 days forward cover. In the fourth quarter of this year and the
first quarter of next year they are forecast to average 51.3 days and
52.5 days respectively, the report said.
"While lower,it is difficult to see how these figures
represent a sign of an alarming tightness in the market as they are
only slightly below - less than half a day - their respective five-year
averages," the report said.
"U.S. weakly inventory data also do not appear to support
the view that the market is especially tight," the report continued.
U.S. weekly oil inventory data are in the spotlight for oil
markets Thursday as the report is expected to show another draw in U.S.
crude stocks, which have fallen for the last three weeks.
At 1300 GMT, U.S. light sweet crude trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 7 cents at $94.02 a barrel.
Meanwhile, production from Saudi Arabia helped boost OPEC's
October supply around 270,000 barrels a day versus the previous month
to 30.99 million barrels a day.
Non-OPEC supply growth was revised down slightly to 800,000
barrels a day this year, mainly due to downward revisions in the U.S.,
Norway, U.K. and Brazil in the second half of this year. Next year,
non-OPEC supply growth was also revised down slightly to 1 million
barrels a day, the report said.