London-Sana
The International Energy Agency said today that global oil stocks may rise sharply despite an agreement between OPEC and its allies to increase production cuts and slow the growth of US production.
Reuters quoted the Paris-based agency in a monthly report, "Despite the additional cuts and reduced expectations for the growth of supplies of non-OPEC countries in 2020 to 2.1 million barrels per day, global oil stocks may rise by 700 thousand barrels in the first quarter of 2020."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers agreed last week to suppress additional production by 500 thousand barrels per day in the first quarter of 2020 in order to achieve a balance in the market and support prices, but without undertaking binding action beyond next March.
The agency noted that OPEC production also tends to exceed the expected demand for the group's oil by 700 thousand barrels per day in the first half of next year and by one million barrels per day in the second half.
The International Energy Agency revised its forecast for non-OPEC supply growth in 2020 by a 200,000 bpd reduction due to an ongoing slowdown in the United States.
The International Energy Agency estimates that the total growth of US oil production will slow to 1.1 million barrels per day in 2020 from 1.6 million barrels per day this year.
