BP Says Oil Demand Will Rise During Q3/Q4

Global oil demand will rise by about a million barrels per day in the third and fourth quarters from a year ago, recovering from its fourth consecutive quarterly drop, as the US recovers from its recession, the oil major BP has said.

Oil demand in the second quarter may have declined by as much as two hundred thousand barrels per day from a year ago, falling for the fourth straight quarter, as a recovery in the world's largest economy slowed, said Michael D. Smith, head of energy analysis at BP, Europe's top oil company by sales, after a presentation in Tokyo of its Statistical Review of World Energy.

With demand set to recover in the world's largest economy in the current quarter, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pump a third of the world's oil, will have to increase output to prevent a surge in prices, Smith said.

“OPEC has been slow in reacting to demand changes in the past,” Smith said. They need to increase output by their September meeting because “we need more OPEC oil ahead of the winter,” he said.

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