Kuwait oil price down 42 cents

KUWAIT: The price of Kuwaiti oil went down 42 cents to $90.98 per barrel as opposed to $91.40 pb the day before, said the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Saturday. The price of Brent crude and the West Texas Intermediate, respectively, went up by 71 and 64 cents, settling at $90.45 pb and $85.66 pb, respectively.

Meanwhile, the global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 remains broadly unchanged from last month’s assessment of 2.2 mb/d (million barrels per day), according to OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report. The MOMR for April 2024, released on Thursday, noted that slight adjustments were made to the 1Q-24 data, with a slight upward revision in OECD Europe and some non-OECD data, reflecting better-than-expected performance in oil demand data.

“This increase was offset by a downward revision to Africa in 1Q-24 and the Middle East in the first three quarters,” it reads. Accordingly, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is projected to expand by around 0.3 mb/d and the nonOECD by about 2.0 mb/d. In 2025, global oil demand is expected to see robust growth of 1.8 mb/d, yearon-year. The OECD is expected to grow by 0.1 mb/d, y-o-y, while demand in the non-OECD is forecast to increase by 1.7 mb/d.

The world economic growth forecasts for 2024 and 2025 remain unchanged at 2.8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, as the report pointed out. In the United States, economic growth for 2024 is revised up slightly to 2.1 percent, as the healthy momentum from 2H-23 is expected to carry into 2024, while the forecast for 2025 remains at 1.7 percent. The economic growth forecast for the Eurozone remains at 0.5 percent for 2024 and 1.2 percent for 2025.

Japan’s economic growth forecast is also unchanged at 0.8 percent in 2024 and one percent in 2025. Meanwhile, China’s economic growth forecast remains at 4.8 percent in 2024 and 4.6 percent in 2025. India’s economic growth forecast is unchanged at 6.6 percent for 2024 and 6.3 percent for 2025. Brazil’s economic growth forecast remains at 1.6 percent for 2024 and 1.9 percent for 2025. The ongoing robust performance of Russia’s economy leads to upward revisions for both the 2024 and 2025 growth forecasts, now standing at two percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Regarding crude oil price movements, the report said the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) value increased by $2.99, or 3.7 percent, in March, m-o-m, to average $84.22/b. Oil futures prices averaged higher, with the ICE Brent front-month contract rising by $2.95, or 3.6 percent, m-o-m, to $84.67/b, and the NYMEX WTI front-month contract up by $3.80, or 5.0 percent, m-o-m, to average $80.41/b.