On the sidelines of the “Ceraweek” energy conference in Houston, Jose Fernandez, US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Energy Affairs, said that “as the world’s economies recover” from the Covid-19 pandemic, “(oil) consumption will increase, so we would like to see supply meet demand.”
“We want more production” of oil in the world, including from OPEC+, the alliance made up of OPEC and its 10 oil partners, he added.
In early October, OPEC+ decided to reduce its production by two million barrels per day, at a level it has not changed since then.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, oil demand collapsed to 90.98 million barrels per day, before rising to 97.01 million barrels per day in 2021 and then to 99.55 million barrels per day in 2022.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude, the US reference oil, is lower today by regarding a third than it was a year ago, that is, in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it is more than 40% higher than it was in the same period in 2019, and by nearly 30%. compared to the same period in 2018.
Between early September 2021 and early January 2023, President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew approximately 250 million barrels from the US Strategic Reserve and offered them for sale in the market to limit the rise in black gold prices.
Last year, the US President did not stop calling on OPEC Plus to increase its oil production, but his request did not fall on deaf ears from the coalition.
OPEC expects oil demand to grow this year by 2.32 million barrels per day compared to last year.
© 2023 AFP