“In the coming months, the market is expected to remain under pressure from uncertainties in the economic outlook, demand deterioration and the substantial overhang in supply, OPEC said.
OPEC joins the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US government in lessening worldwide oil demand forecasts since previous week. Its cutback is less severe than the IEA’s.
Previous week the IEA said that world oil demand will slip by 2.4 million bpd this year, over one million bpd down from its earlier estimate.
The exporter group said that demand is falling fastest in the developed countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD). The global slump has also restrained earlier rapid growth in nations like China and India.
Demand growth in countries outside the OECD has dropped by 90% year-on year, it said.
In the meantime, the group which has reduced output quotas in an effort to hold up oil prices, said its production was at 27.9 million bpd in March 2009, down 145,000 bpd from February 2009.
OPEC held its production quotas stable when it last met in March 2009, but called another meeting for May 28, 2009 to re-examine the market.
Vigilant monitoring is essential to assess the likely developments in the second half of the year and the impact these will have on market stability, the oil cartel group said.
