The OPEC oil cartel said Wednesday that it expects healthy growth in global demand for crude as the COP28 climate conference agreed on a transition away from fossil fuels.
It said global oil demand should grow by 2.2 million barrels per day next year to an average of 104.36 mbd.
“Oil demand is expected to be supported by resilient global GDP growth, amid continued improvements in economic activity in China,” OPEC said in its regular monthly report on the oil market.
Demand in the industrialised nations in the OECD is expected to increase by 0.3 mbd to reach an average of 46.1 mbd, but still remain below the record set in 2019.
Demand in non-OECD nations is seen as rising by 2 mbd to 58.3 mbd on average.
The forecasts came as for the first time a COP global climate conference explicitly evoked a progressive reduction in the use of fossil fuels that are responsible for global warming.
COP28 calls for a “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.
The agreement comes eight years after the Paris accord which set the target of keeping the increase in global temperatures at 1.5C and as the world set the hottest year on record.
