Global oil reserves fall more than 100M barrels
By Sara Israfilbayova
World oil prices are expected to rise, as investors will likely recoup the statements of OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo.
The world oil reserves fell by more than 100 million barrels in the first half of 2017, Barkindo said, as he addressed the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul, without specifying the exact level of stocks of raw materials, RIA Novosti reported.
Participants of the OPEC Deal expect that the result of actions by OPEC and non-OPEC countries will be the reduction of commercial reserves to 3 billion barrels of oil.
World oil prices slightly increased on July 12, as investors are waiting for the publication of statistics from the U.S. on oil reserves for the week. Brent crude futures up 1.6 percent, at $48.28 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $45.82 per barrel, up 1.7 percent, Reuters reported.
On November 30, 2016 OPEC countries for the first time in many years decided to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day. Later, on December 10 of the same year, non-cartel countries agreed to cut their production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day, including Russia - by 300,000 barrels.
OPEC and non-OPEC members agreed on May 25, 2017 to extend the agreement on oil production reduction for another 9 months - until the end of March 2018.
Meanwhile the Cartel said that total OPEC-14 crude oil production averaged 32.61 million barrels per day in June, an increase of 393,000 barrels per day over the previous month.
Crude oil output increased mostly in Libya, Nigeria, Angola, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, while production showed declines in Venezuela, according to the July Oil Market Report.
Moreover, non-OPEC oil supply growth was revised marginally lower to 0.80 million barrels per day in 2017, averaging 57.82 million barrels per day.
The downward revision was mainly driven by expected lower OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) oil supply in 2H17, according to the report.
For 2018, non-OPEC oil supply is expected to grow by 1.14 million barrels per day to average 58.96 million barrels per day, according to the OPEC forecasts.
OPEC analysts believe that US, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, Congo and the UK are expected to be the main drivers of growth, while declines are foreseen in Mexico, China, Colombia and Azerbaijan.
The cartel also expects world oil demand growth to reach 1.26 million barrels per day in 2018, slightly less than in the current year and broadly in line with the average growth seen over the last five years.
Total world oil demand will hit 97.65 million barrels per day in 2018, according to OPEC projections.
OPEC did not provide forecast for 2018 in its previous monthly oil market report published in June.
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