OPEC sticks to upbeat view on oil demand growth in 2022, 2023

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LONDON, Sept 13 Reuters) – OPEC on Tuesday stuck to its forecasts for robust global oil demand growth in 2022 and 2023 citing signs that major economies were faring better than expected despite headwinds such as surging inflation.

Oil demand will increase by 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 and by 2.7 million bpd in 2023, unchanged from last month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a monthly report.

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Oil use has rebounded from the lows of the pandemic, although high prices and Chinese coronavirus outbreaks have trimmed 2022 growth projections.

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OPEC now sees oil use exceeding 2019’s rate in 2023, having this year said it expected this to happen in 2022.

“Oil demand in 2023 is expected to be supported by a still-solid economic performance in major consuming countries, as well as potential improvements in COVID-19 restrictions and reduced geopolitical uncertainties,” OPEC said in the report.

The group and allies including Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, have this year been ramping up oil output as they look to unwind record cuts put in place in 2020 after the pandemic slashed demand.

However, OPEC+ in recent months has failed to achieve its planned output increases due to underinvestment in oilfields by some OPEC members and by losses in Russian output.

OPEC’s monthly report showed OPEC output posted a sizeable gain in August, rising by 618,000 bpd to 29.65 million bpd, although much of this was due to Libyan supply recovering from outages. (Reporting by Alex Lawler; editing by Jason Neely)