IEA lowers global oil demand forecast

Oil

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised its 2020 global oil demand forecast down by 140K b/d to 91.4M b/d compared to its last report, as ongoing impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to create uncertainty in the market. Forecasted demand for 2021 was also lowered by 240K b/d to 9.71M b/d, with the IEA citing reduced worldwide mobility and a worse than expected weakness in the aviation sector. 

Refinery runs are predicted to decline by 6.9M b/d y-o-y to 74.8M b/d in 2020, and are expected to lag behind recovering demand due to vast global oil stocks. Throughput is forecast to increase by 4.5M b/d y-o-y in 2021, however this is still 2.3M b/d lower than 2019 levels.