OPEC cuts 2025 demand forecast
April 14, 2025
Baker Hughes had oil rigs down 9 to a total of 480 and last year at this time there were 506 oil rigs in operation. This is understandable with a roughly 10 dollar per barrel decline in prices. Completion crews also took a big hit this week down 10 and extending the slide to down 20 over the last 3 weeks combined.
The US dollar has fallen roughly 10% in the last three months on the trade war news, and this has provided support to communities.
OPEC+ has cut its demand growth forecast outlook, but prices are still trading higher today anyway to start. OPEC+ has global demand growth at 1.3 million barrels per day this year, down from 1.45 million barrels per day. OPEC+ said its output averaged 41.02 million bpd in March, down 37,000 bpd from February. It lowered crude demand growth for the next year from 1.43 million bpd to 1.28 million barrels per day.
From John Kemp of John Kemp Energy: Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 236 million barrels in the six most important petroleum futures and options contracts over the seven days ending on April 8th. It was the largest one-week sale in records dating back to 2011 as investors reacted to an increase in OPEC+ production and the eruption of a full-scale trade war between the US and its trading partners expected to dampen oil consumption.