World Oil Demand to Shrink Sharply This Year: IEA

World Oil Demand to Shrink Sharply This Year: IEA
(Reuters – David Sheppard)

World oil demand will contract sharply in 2009 as global economic slowdown further erodes consumption, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. The Paris-based agency joined the ranks of forecasters predicting a fall in global oil demand this year, revising its previous 2009 estimate down by 940,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 85.3 million bpd – a 500,000 bpd year-on-year fall.

"Forecast global oil demand has been sharply revised down for 2009, following a reassessment of global economic prospects," the adviser to industrialized nations said in its monthly report. "Global GDP growth has been roughly halved to 1.2%, given the worsening outlook in OECD and non-OECD countries alike. The expected two-year contraction in oil demand will be the first since the early 1980s."

The IEA's 940,000 bpd revision to its 2009 estimate is its biggest single month's revision in recent times, David Fyfe, head of the IEA's Oil Industry & Markets Division, told Reuters. …

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Commentary: It is written capriciously perhaps but this apparently predicts oil consumption/demand will fall nearly 50% this year. Described as the largest month's revision in recent times makes me question what recent times are being referred? The last few months, years, decades, or since Christ died?