Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

OPEC said it expects weaker demand for its crude this year, while predicting that slumping prices will curb growth in U.S. supply.

Demand for OPEC oil will average 28.8 million barrels a day, about 100,000 barrels less than forecast last month, the Vienna-based group said in a monthly report. The rate of U.S. production growth will be slower than previously predicted, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said.

“The main factors for the lower growth prediction in 2015 are lower oil price expectations, the declining number of active rigs in North America, the decrease in drilling permits in the U.S. and the reduction in international oil companies’ 2015 spending plans,” OPEC said.

Oil prices collapsed about 60 percent from last year’s peak as OPEC resists calls to pare output amid the fastest U.S. supply growth in three decades.

While the 2015 requirement for OPEC crude is 300,000 barrels a day less than in 2014, the decline is smaller than the 500,000 barrels in December’s report, because the group’s estimate for last-year was also cut.

Output from its 12 members increased by 140,000 barrels a day in December, led by a jump of 285,100 a day in Iraq.

OPEC boosted its forecast for U.S. oil production in 2015 to 13.81 million barrels a day, from 13.72 million in last month’s report. Still, estimates for the country’s annual supply growth are lower, at 950,000 barrels a day compared with 1.05 million a day.

The organization’s projections for global oil demand were little changed.