Alex Lawler

LONDON, (Reuters) – OPEC Monday increased its global oil demand forecast for 2022’s first quarter but kept its full-year growth projection steady. Omicron coronavirus variants would only have a slight impact on the situation as people get used to the pandemic.

According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC reported in a monthly update that oil demand will average 99.13 millions barrels per daily (bpd), up 1.11million bpd over its last forecast.

“Some recovery that was expected to be achieved in the fourth quarter 2021 has now been shifted into the first quarter 2022 followed by a steady recovery in the second half 2022,” OPEC stated in its report.

“Moreover, Omicron’s new variant will have a mild impact on the planet, which is better equipped for COVID-19 management and the related challenges.”

After the historic drop in oil consumption last year, OPEC maintains its prediction that global oil demand will rise by 5.65M bpd in 2020.

OPEC predicts that there will be further demand growth of 4.15 millions bpd in 2022. This is unchanged from the previous month. It will increase world consumption to levels above 2019.

OPEC and its ally OPEC+ are slowly reversing the record-breaking output cuts that were implemented last year. Despite concern over the new version, OPEC+ announced earlier in this month that it would increase its monthly output by 400,000 bpd in Jan.

According to the report, OPEC’s November output rose by 290,000. bpd at 27.72 Million BPD. This was due to increases in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as well as a recovery after outages in Nigeria.