With oil prices falling due to the collapse of the stock markets and fears of a possible recession in the United States, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has revised downwards its forecasts for demand for the current two-year period. And this after the intransigence shown by Opec itself in the past months may have contributed to the deterioration of the economic picture which is now causing all the indexes to fall, including crude oil.
According to the Arab cartel, world oil demand will grow to an average of 88,14 million barrels per day throughout 2011, which is 400 barrels less than expected. For 2012, OPEC cut its forecast growth only marginally to 89,44 million barrels, compared to the 89,50 expected, still up on this year.
In recent months, OPEC had refused to give in to the request of advanced economies to increase oil production to calm the rise in prices. Yet now it still risks paying the price as all crude oil indices are correcting downwards: in London Brent is approaching 100, falling to 102 dollars, while in New York West Texas Intermediate has reached 78,87 dollars, below the threshold of 80 dollars.
"The clouds that are obscuring the economy are already having an effect on the direction that the market will follow," OPEC said, "the possibilities of a consequent deterioration in market stability requires greater vigilance and tight control of what will happen in the next months."
