Oil supply will exceed demand until late 2017: IEA

dubai — Global oil output will exceed demand until late 2017, the head of the International Energy Agency said before major producing nations gather for talks.

“We don’t see the oil market re-balancing until late 2017” provided there’s no “major intervention”, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Algiers.

The Paris-based agency is extending its bearish view after saying on September 13 that oil supply will outpace demand “at least through the first half of next year.” Opec members will hold informal discussions in the Algerian capital on Wednesday as they seek to buoy prices following two years of decline amid brimming global stockpiles.

Oil-demand growth has been weaker than expected, Birol said. The IEA this month cut its forecast for consumption growth in 2016 and 2017, citing a “marked slowdown” in India and China. The agency, which advises industrialised countries on energy policy, projected demand growth of 1.3 million barrels a day in 2016, down from 1.6 million a day in 2015. — Bloomberg