OPEC forecasts reduction of global oil consumption

The report published in Vienna by the Research and marketing department of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) predicted that in the second half of the current year global daily crude oil consumption would amount to 76.46 million barrels and in the future year - 77.22 million barrels.

According to the opinion of OPEC experts, the forecast reduction of crude consumption in the world was caused "by gloomy prospects of improvement of the American economic market and political tension in the Middle East and, first of all, around Iraq." The average monthly oil extraction by OPEC member-states, excluding Iraq, amounted in September to 24.079 million barrels.

According to the information provided by the office of the OPEC Secretary General, extraction of crude oil in Iraq grew in September by 345,000 barrels a day and amounted to 1.922 millions of barrels.