G20-INDIA/IEA (URGENT) – REUTERS Agency
GOA, India, July 22 (Reuters) – The International Energy Agency (IEA) will revise its forecasts for global oil demand growth based on the economic growth prospects of China and some other countries, its chief executive, Fatih Birol, said on Saturday.
Birol reiterated the IEA’s view that crude markets are expected to tighten in the second half of the year.
Speaking to reporters at a Group of 20 energy ministers meeting in India, Birol said the demand forecast revision “depends largely on growth in many countries in the second half, but above all on China’s growth prospects.”
Asked if there is the possibility of lowering the demand forecasts further, he replied: “Yes, but there is also the possibility of revising them higher, so we will see how the Chinese economic outlook is. But in any case we see a tightening in the second half of the year.”
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in Goa; writing by Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi; editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)
Source: Ambito
