IEA: oil producers may struggle again amid second wave of Covid-19

Shafaq News/ Global oil stocks which rose during the height of the pandemic are being steadily reduced, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, but a second wave is slowing demand and will complicate efforts by producers to balance the market.

The agency expects that global energy demand will decline 5% in 2020 and increase the in 2023, after recovering from the infection or finding a vaccine.

The IEA kept its crude oil demand forecast for 2020 and 2021 largely unchanged at 91.7 million barrels per day and 97.2 million barrels per day respectively.

OPEC+ producers - OPEC members and others including Russia - plan to boost supply by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from January and the IEA predicts a ceasefire in Libya will raise output there to 700,000 bpd in December from 300,000 bpd currently.