P.M. BRIEFING : Increase in Use of Oil Expected
The West’s energy watchdog, reacting to a sharp drop in crude oil prices since the Persian Gulf War started, has raised its forecast for oil consumption in 1991.
The International Energy Agency’s Monthly Oil Market Report, published today, predicted that world consumption outside the former Eastern European trading bloc would average 53.4 million barrels a day for the year.
That would mark a 500,000 barrel per day rise from both the IEA’s 1991 projection of a month ago and the average level of world oil consumption in 1990.
Economists at the Paris-based IEA based their forecasts on an oil price of $20 a barrel instead of the $27 price they factored in last month. The new calculation followed a 50% drop in market prices on the day the war started. Prices have been stuck at around $20 a barrel since.
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