China the giant with an oil apetite
By Elio Ohep of Petroleumworld
CARACAS 12 12 03
Petroleumworld.com
China's appetite for crude oil in 2003 will increase faster than expected this year and in 2004, Chinese demand appears to be advancing "at a breakneck pace," the International Energy Agency or IEA monthly oil market report released on Wednesday.
Chinese demand for crude jumped by 11.5 percent in October, however, China´s growth is limited due its capacity to generate electricity, the agency said.
"The pull from the Far East has taken over from the typical U.S.-centric focus as the key driver for the oil market," IEA said.
Global demand will grow by to 1.9 percent, or 1.44 million barrels a day, and in 2004 by 1.5 percent, or 1.16 million barrels a day according the IEA report said.
The IEA raised its estimates for global daily demand growth in the two years by 160,000 barrels and 90,000 barrels, respectively.
OPEC members have agreed to maintain their 24.5 m b/d of productionfor the first quarter of 2004. However, in addition they still manage to pumped 1.2 million barrels a day above their output ceiling in November, the IEA said.
On the world oil supplies the IEAsaid that they rose in November to 81.7 million barrels a day, up 625,000 barrels a day - or 0.8 percent - from October. OPEC contributed 285,000 barrels of this increase, while non-OPEC producers such as Angola, Brazil and Russia chipped in the rest.
By Elio Ohep, Petroleumworld Editor, editorpw@hotmail.com, 58 412 996 3730.
Petroleumworld News 12 12 03
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