World oil demand this year is forecast to grow by 1.2 million barrels daily to an average of 87 million barrels per day, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Tuesday.
The forecast maintains OPEC's estimation last month, despite soaring global oil prices.
The oil demand of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries would decline slightly in 2008, OPEC said in its monthly report, while pointing out that demand from non-OECD nations, such as some Asian countries as well as the Middle East and Latin America, would be strong.
According to the report, non-OPEC average daily supply in 2008 was expected to grow to 800,000 million barrels, compared with a growth of 600,000 million barrels last year, reaching a production amount of 50.3 million barrels.
However, in March, OPEC daily crude oil production averaged 32 million barrels, a decline of 141,000 barrels per day compared to the previous month.
In 2008, the average daily demand for OPEC crude is expected tobe 31.8 million barrels, a decline of about 200,000 million barrels per day versus last year.
Meanwhile, the report also emphasized that the international oil market is well-supplied and anticipated that the daily world oil demand in the second quarter will decline by 1.4 million barrels to 85.7 million barrels, mainly due to the recession in the United States.
The monthly average prices of OPEC in March was 99.03 U.S. dollars per barrel, an increase of more than 9 percent from the previous month.
On Monday, the daily average prices of OPEC reached a new high of 104.02 U.S. dollars.
Source:Xinhua
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