OPEC raises Q1, 2022 demand forecast, says Omicron impact to be mild

• Financial

On Monday, the 14-member pact of oil exporting nation (OPEC), had raised its global crude oil demand forecast for Q1, 2022, while the Saudi-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, had projected that global oil demands would roll back to a pre-pandemic level over first quarter of 2022.

On top of that, latest OPEC report also had undermined the fiscal impacts of Omicron adding that the variant would more likely to have a brief and mild impact. Despite upbeat remarks from OPEC, both US and Brent crude oil futures’ prices shed nearly 1.0 per cent on Monday, as World Health Organization says that the newly identified Omicron variant poses a substantial scale of global risk.

OPEC raises Q1, 2022 demand outlook

Aside from that, OPEC was quoted saying in the monthly report that the pact of oil exporting nations had been expecting global oil demand to average about a 99.13 million barrels per day over Q1, 2022, about 1.11 million barrels per day up from a previous forecast.

Besides, adding that November output of OPEC nations rose by 220,000 barrels per day, the Saudi-led group said in a report, “Some of the recovery previously expected in the fourth quarter of 2021 has been shifted to the first quarter of 2022, followed by a more-steady recovery throughout the second half of 2022.

Moreover, the impact of the new Omicron variant is projected to be mild and short-lived, as the world becomes better equipped to manage COVID-19 and its related challenges”. OPEC, in tandem, held on to an earlier forecast that global crude demand would top 100 million barrels per day by Q3, 2022.