The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained its world oil demand growth forecast for 2012 and said improving consumption in Japan could positively impact world oil demand growth.
In its monthly Oil Market Report released today, the OPEC held its 2012 world oil demand at 0.90 million barrels per day (mbd).
US commercial oil stocks rose 14.3 mb to 1,073.8 mb in March. With this build, inventories were 30.80 mb higher than a year ago and the surplus with the five-year average widened to 47.0 mb, the cartel noted in its report
Meanwhile, the OPEC revised down its world economic growth forecast for the year 21012 to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent. While maintaining its economic growth forecast for the US and the Japan at 2.2 percent and 1.8 percent respectively, the cartel noted that euro-zone's economic growth continues to decline and the forecast for 2012 now shows a contraction of 0.3 percent, down from minus 0.2 percent previously.
The cartel expects non-OPEC oil supply to grow by 0.6 mbd in 2012, an upward revision of 30,000 bd from the previous month.
by RTT Staff Writer
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