Global oil to grow in 2014 – IEA

International Energy Agency, (IEA), has revealed a greater rise in Global oil demand than expected this year, according to a new forecast that found consumption grew by 91.2m barrels per day (bpd) in Q4 last year. The forecast, in its monthly report on the oil market, said consumption accelerated by 135,000 bpd, buoyed by the recovery of advanced economies led by the US.

However, it noted the growth of Chinese demand slowed down in the second half of 2013, Agence France-Presse reported. Highlighting huge changes in the undercurrents of the oil market despite stable prices, the IEA said that emerging economies were now driving growth of oil demand, but its monthly report focused strongly on a huge rise in US output. This was accelerating debate about whether or not the US should lift a ban dating from the oil shocks of the 1970s on the export of oil, the IEA said. In the 34 countries belonging to the OECD group of advanced democracies, and for the first time since 2010, “demand appears to have swung back into growth in 2013,” the IEA said. It raised its estimate of global demand for oil in the last quarter of 2013 by 135,000 bpd to 91.2 million bpd “led by a significant upward revision of 700,000 bpd to the US demand assessment pegged to industrial fuels.” It comes as Mohammad Khorsheed, General Manager of GE Saudi Innovation Centre, predicted an eight percent increase in energy efficiency practices will help save over SAR50bn ($13.33bn) over ten years, the Saudi Gazette reported. A ten percent reduction in oil consumption within the Kingdom by 2030 will result in the release of 255 million barrels for export achieving additional revenue of $28bn a year, he said. According to a GE study, the use of oil can be optimised through efficient technologies. Some 452 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted in 2010 through power fuel consumption, while per capita carbon dioxide emissions stood at 16.5 tonnes. As part of an $1bn investment commitment to the Kingdom, the company has unveiled its Saudi GE Innovation Centre in Dhahran Techno-Valley and also expanded its GE Manufacturing Technology Centre in Dammam.