OPEC to Pump More to Meet 4Q Demand, Build More Capacity

One analyst attending the workshop said the price of oil would decline to around $35/bbl or lower by the end of the summer.

“The fundamentals are so strongly in a bearish direction that the market will be pushed down,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, an Amherst, Mass.-based consulting company.

With current inventory builds of 1.5 million b/d, even a 1.5 million b/d increase in demand between the second and fourth quarters would leave inventories untouched by the year’s end, he said. “You can draw down 1 million b/d from inventories without straining the market.”

The IEA last week said global demand for oil, which boomed 3.5% last year on strong Asian economic growth, would be lower this year, at 2.2%.
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