Vitol: Oil demand in 2022 will exceed pre-pandemic levels

LONDON (Archyde.com) – Global energy trader Vitol said on Monday it expects oil demand in 2022 to exceed pre-pandemic levels of 2019 and that crude prices are likely to remain elevated for some time.
“While we expect demand for oil to decline in the long term, it is likely that demand will continue to grow for the next 10 years,” Chief Executive Russell Hardy said in a statement on the group’s 2021 results. Given the limited investment in production, we expect the demand gap to widen over the next few years.”
Vitol said its revenues jumped to $279 billion in 2021 from $140 billion in 2020, and that it delivered 7.6 million barrels per day of crude oil and its derivatives last year, compared to 7.1 million barrels per day in 2020.
Hardy said that the increased demand for oil, accompanied by a restrained growth in production, caused crude inventories to fall by two million barrels per day to their lowest levels in several years, adding that a tight supply in the energy markets was already present before the outbreak of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
He added that the gas and electricity markets suffered unprecedented volatility in early autumn in Europe and in December due to fears of supply shortages.