VIENNA, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- OPEC said Wednesday in a report from Vienna crude oil demand should increase, though regional economic variances will keep appetites tempered.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its market report for February it expected the world will need about 29.6 million barrels of its crude oil per day in 2014, down 300,000 bpd from the previous year. The 12-member oil cartel said in its report from Vienna its January production of 29.71 million bpd was up 28,000 bpd from the previous month.
For cartel members, OPEC said Libya was the stand out in terms of production increases. From Dec. 13 to Jan. 14, Libyan oil production more than doubled to 510,000 bpd, though that's well below the pre-civil war peak of 1.6 million bpd.
For oil producers outside the cartel, OPEC said much of the increase in production is expected to come from Brazil, Canada and the United States. Non-OPEC oil supply growth of 1.29 million bpd expected for 2014 is a slight increase from the previous year.
On the demand side, OPEC said the appetite for oil should increase to around 1.1 million barrels per day this year, up 50,000 from the January estimate.
OPEC said it expects growth in demand to continue because of improvements in the global economy "but will remain below potential growth, as rising economic activities counterbalance the decline in oil intensity."
