IEA Sees Oil-Refining Flexibility From 2008 Onwards (Update1)
By Stephen Voss Last Updated: July 13, 2007
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 oil-consuming nations, said refinery upgrades next year will boost the potential to process heavier crude grades, easing market tightness and possibly lowering prices.
During the next five years, investment in equipment will mean refiners will be better able to turn increasing quantities of heavy crude and fuel oils into lighter products such as gasoline, the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report today. Global oil demand will jump 2.5 percent next year to 88.21 million barrels a day, it said.
… World oil demand will rise 1.8 percent this year. Demand next year will be led by accelerating consumption growth in China and the Middle East. Oil use in Africa in 2008 will grow at twice the pace of the industrialized nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, IEA estimates show. … Excluding Angola and Iraq, which aren't bound to OPEC production limits, OPEC crude output was 26.63 million barrels of oil a day in June, the IEA estimated, up from 26.61 million barrels a day in May.
…On an annual basis, the IEA estimates demand for crude from all 12 OPEC members to be between 31.1 million and 31.7 million barrels a day this year and between 31.7 million and 32.3 million barrels a day in 2008. The agency doesn't directly forecast OPEC production. Estimates at the lower ends of those ranges reflect the IEA's doubts that supply from some OPEC nations, namely Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela and Indonesia, can be fully relied upon.
… Even so, OPEC's overall oil production capacity, including crude and other forms of lighter oil, will rise about 1 million barrels a day next year to 35.4 million barrels a day. Non-OPEC oil supply is also expected to rise 1 million barrels a day next year, to 51 million barrels a day.
Bloomberg