U.S. forecasts growth in global oil supply, consumption in 2020

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday forecast that both crude oil supply and consumption of the world will grow in 2020.

In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the agency expected global oil supply will rise by 1.6 million barrels per day in 2020 and global oil consumption will rise by 1.3 million barrels per day, contributing to the rise of global oil inventories at a pace of 0.3 million barrels per day.

According to EIA, the supply growth in 2020 is led by countries that are not members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), particularly the United States, Norway, Brazil and Canada, which will more than offset forecast supply declines of 1.0 million barrels per day from OPEC members.

On the demand side, EIA said that countries that are not part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will continue to drive demand growth, led by China and India which represent about half of all global growth in the forecast.

EIA forecast that China's consumption will increase by 0.5 million barrels per day in both 2020 and 2021.

According to EIA, global oil markets were roughly balanced in 2019, as global oil supply declined slightly and global oil consumption grew at its slowest pace since 2011.