OPEC+ monitoring committee forecasts oil demand growth acceleration in H2 2021

The recovery of oil demand will accelerate in the second half of the year but the number of COVID-19 cases is still growing worldwide. This is the reason why the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee keeps the decision taken a month ago, OPEC says in the communique after the meeting.

"COVID-19 cases are rising in a number of countries, despite the ongoing vaccination campaigns, and that the resurgence could hamper the economic and oil demand recovery," TASS cited OPEC as saying.

The Meeting observed the destocking trend of commercial OECD inventories, but noted that they increased by 14.4 mln barrels in March 2021 and were 77.4 mln barrels above the 2015-2019 average," according to the report.

In view of these circumstances, the Committee decided to proceed with implementation of the decision taken at the meeting on April 1, the document says.

The next JMMC meeting and the ministerial meeting of OPEC+ states will be held on June 1.