The world will burn more oil than ever this year, the International Energy Agency forecast, as China’s emergence from Covid-19 lockdowns returns global crude demand to its upward, prepandemic trajectory.
The Paris-based energy watchdog said in a monthly report that it expects oil demand to grow to a record 101.9 million barrels a day this year, propelled almost entirely by booming demand in Asia. The figure is 200,000 barrels a day more than the IEA was forecasting last month.
That translates into some two million barrels a day of annual growth this year. Asian nations will account for 1.4 million barrels a day of that, and China alone will account for 900,000 barrels a day, the IEA said. After some of the world’s most draconian Covid-19 lockdowns, China abandoned most of those restrictions late last year.
“Following the relaxation of anti-Covid lockdown measures in China, the country is set to resume its established role as the primary engine of world oil demand growth,” the IEA said.
