World hits a daily oil and liquids record

The world is pumping out more oil and other petroleum liquids than ever before.

Global supply rose to 100.3 million barrels a day in the third quarter, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday in its monthly oil market report.

Output, which includes crude oil, natural gas liquids, biofuels and refinery processing gains, was 2.3 million barrels above the same period last year and 1.3 million barrels a day higher than the second quarter.

The new quarterly output record underscores how growing demand in the developing world requires new sources of supply in the short term, even as increasing sales of new energy vehicles and renewable power generation threaten the long-term growth of fossil fuels.

The IEA sees production from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) rising another 1.7 million barrels a day next year.

The output increase from the second quarter was led by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which boosted production by 500,000 barrels a day, and the Americas, which saw a rise of 400,000 barrels a day.

Biofuel production also increased by 300,000 barrels a day from the previous quarter, according to the monthly report.

However, the IEA cut forecasts for oil demand this year and next because of growing threats to global economic growth, yet warned that dwindling spare oil supplies will keep prices high.

The IEA cut its estimate for global oil-demand growth for both 2018 and 2019 by about 110,000 barrels a day to 1.3 million and 1.4 million barrels a day respectively. The revision also reflected changes in the way the agency assesses Chinese consumption.

Oil climbed to a four-year high above $85 a barrel in London last week on concern that looming US sanctions on Iranian crude exports will leave markets short of supply later this year.

Prices have since retreated, as attention switches to the demand threats posed by faltering emerging economies and the US-China trade dispute.