It is difficult not to put this information in parallel with the absolute temperature records, the megafires raging in the four corners of the globe, the historic loss of biodiversity… According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the consumption of oil will reach an all-time high this year.
After revising its forecast upwards, the IEA indicates that global demand in 2023 should be at a “highest level on record” before a slightly less strong increase in 2024.
It’s simple, the world has never been so greedy for oil. Without waiting to draw an annual report, global oil demand has already “reached a record 103 million barrels per day (mb/d) in June and August could experience a new peak”, underlines the agency, an emanation of the Paris-based OECD, in its monthly report released on Friday.
Several decisive factors
Consumption is “boosted by summer air travel, increased use of oil to generate electricity, and soaring Chinese petrochemical activity,” says the IEA.
For the year as a whole, global demand for black gold “is expected to increase by 2.2 million barrels (mb/d) per day” compared to 2022 “to reach 102.2 mb/d in 2023, China representing more than 70% of the growth”, specifies the agency.
This is the “highest annual level ever recorded”, according to the IEA which already forecast in February a record for the current year, of 101.9 million barrels per day, after 99.9 mb / d in 2022 and 97.6 mb/d in 2021.
A slowdown in demand growth in 2024
However, the agency estimates that the increase in oil demand will be less strong in 2024 than in 2023, when the world must imperatively reduce its consumption of fossil fuels, which are harmful to the climate, in order to limit global warming. at +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
With the post-pandemic recovery “running out of steam” and “the energy transition accelerating”, “growth will slow down by 1 mb/d in 2024”, predicts the agency.