By the OGJ Online Staff
LONDON, Mar. 14� Global oil demand will slip by 110,000 b/d, as the influence of the slowdown in the US economy combines with persistently high crude prices to curb oil demand, the International Energy Agency stated Wednesday in its monthly market report.
Softening demand for oil is "increasingly apparent" across most key regions markets, said IEA, with emerging economies, because of a dependence on US imports to balance their payments, confronting the twin problems of high oil prices and fallout from the North American downturn.
"Final figures for OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries in December and the latest data from other countries indicate that global products demand in the fourth quarter fell short of even the most recent downward-revised estimates," said the Paris-based IEA.
Precipitous drops in December translated into a net overall fall of 160,000 b/d in global fourth quarter products demand compared to the same period a year earlier.
This steep decline in demand, the IEA qualified, was partly a reversal of the "abnormal" gains made in 1999 when Year 2000 computer concerns led to precautionary stockbuilding around the globe.
Moreover, on the basis of preliminary data from selected OECD countries, the IEA said early signs are that there will be a slight rebound in demand in January reflecting the short-term switch from natural gas to oil in the US.
World oil production fell in February by 700,000 b/d to 77.25 million b/d, almost entirely due to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries supply cuts, the IEA noted. Output from OEPC, excluding Iraq, decreased by 1.02 million b/d to 25.75 million b/d, 550,000 b/d above the latest target of 25.2 million b/d. Iraq production rose by 320,000 b/d, it said.
