The coronavirus epidemic will cause the growth of oil consumption to be 19% lower in 2020 than calculated so far, OPEC announced on Wednesday in a report that warns that the impact of this crisis has added uncertainties on the fly of the global economy.
"The main reason after this review of the growth of demand and, therefore, of OPEC's oil demand, is the coronavirus outbreak and its expected impact on China's oil demand and, by extension, the world" , says the energy group in its market analysis, published today in Vienna.
The new calculation places global oil consumption during this year at 100.73 million barrels per day (MBD), 230,000 barrels per day less than the estimate made last month, before the outbreak of the epidemic that has already caused more than 1,000 persons.
" The growth in demand for oil in China is expected to slow down compared to last year, reflecting lower economic activity," the report says, noting that the changes in transport fuel consumption, especially air consumption, especially weigh .
OPEC notes that the moment of the outbreak, when millions of Chinese travel to visit their families for the lunar New Year holidays "has exacerbated the impact on transport fuel demand."
OPEC notes that Chinese demand, one of the main consumers of crude oil on the planet, will be in the first half of the year about 200,000 barrels a day less than expected so far.
"The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on China's economy has added uncertainties around global economic growth in 2020, and by extension, the growth in oil demand," says OPEC, who indicates that it will be necessary to continuously monitor the development of the situation to gauge the implications in the oil market this year.
The technical committee of OPEC and its allies (OPEC +), chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia, already recommended Monday additional production cuts during the second quarter of the year to cope with the fall in oil demand for the coronavirus.
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