Demand for oil is set to be lower than expected next year, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday, as it revised down its outlook by 100,000 barrels per day for both the remainder of this year and 2022.
In its Oil Market Report, the IEA said global oil demand was now expected to rise by 5.4 million barrels per day in 2021 and 3.3 million barrels per day in 2022 to hit pre-pandemic levels of 99.5 million barrels per day globally.
But the recovery is expected to be affected by a new surge in Covid-19 cases, with jet fuel being hit hard, the report said. Its authors noted that the emergence of the new omicron variant had already brought about new restrictions on international travel.
However, the IEA added that while the rise in new Covid cases was expected to slow demand, the recovery that is already underway was not expected to be completely derailed.
