The International Energy Agency releases its latest forecasts on the oil market

  • Increases 2018 global oil demand by 100k bpd to 1.5 mil bpd
  • Raises 2018 call on OPEC crude to 32.4 mil bpd, up from 32.3 mil bpd in February
  • Forecasts 2018 non-OPEC supply growth at 1.8 mil bpd, unchanged from February
  • Says signs of US protectionism pose risk to global economic growth forecast
  • Slowdown in trade would hit maritime, trucking fuels
  • Assuming no change to OPEC output, oil market is to see a small stock build in Q1
  • But market is to see deficits for the rest of 2018

Some commentary by the IEA in their monthly oil outlook report. Not too much has changed compared to the February report here.

But they did include a note this time around on trade policies affecting the oil market. Other than that, a raise in global demand is always a positive thing.

Oil not doing too much on the report release though, WTI is trading at $60.90 on the day while Brent is at $64.67 - both near session lows.