On Wednesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC stated that it had to change and revise its global oil forecast for 2020, saying demand is off by almost 10 million barrels a day after a third-quarter heavily impacted by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
The monthly report by OPEC, state a key indicator of the health of the global oil industry, said it expects demand to “remain adversely affected” through the final three months of 2020.
The report states transportation and industrial fuel are expected to remain adversely affected throughout [fourth quarter].
The report was a little more optimistic about 2021, projecting that oil demand will grow by 6.2 million barrels per day, which is also off 300,000 barrels from last month’s forecast.
“These downward revisions mainly take into account downward adjustments to the economic outlook in [relevant] economies due to COVID-19 containment measures, with the accompanying adverse impacts on transportation and industrial fuel demand through mid-2021,” the report added.
Wednesday’s report also said OPEC’s global economic growth forecast continues to show a contraction of 4.3% for 2020 and slightly revised down the estimate for 2021, from 4.5% to 4.4%.
