Novak: Global oil demand to grow by 5–6 mln bpd in 2021

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (PRIME) -- Global demand for oil is expected to increase by 5–6 million barrels per day in 2021, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Rossiya 24 television channel on Monday.

“Today, demand has not yet recovered by about 7–8 million barrels per day relative to the pre-crisis period. Although, in general, I have already said that the fall was much greater, and most of it has recovered already this year,” Novak said.

“Next year we expect about 5–6 million barrels (per day) of additional growth in demand. This is an optimistic option, but again the situation may be different,” he added.

Novak expressed hope that the global oil market would bounce back to the pre-pandemic level in 2021, and also pointed to the positive influence that coronavirus vaccines emergence has on the demand recovery.

“We hope that in 2021 we will still reach those indicators (of oil demand) that were before the spread of the pandemic,” Novak said.

“And here, of course, a very positive factor is the emergence of vaccines (against coronavirus). Indeed, the market reacts very positively to the emergence of vaccines in the world ... The recovery of the market and demand, we see, is going faster,” he added.

The situation with global oil prices is stabilizing, but there are still many uncertainties on the market that affect prices, so it is necessary to monitor the situation, Novak also said.

“As for prices, in fact, the market factor and a lot of even informational reasons affect prices, and the events that take place in the global economy, even political ones – when there were uncertainties with the U.S. elections, we saw that the markets were quite volatile and uncertain,” he said.

Russia is coping with the implementation of projects with hard-to-recover oil deposits and the development of offshore fields without foreign partners, Novak also said.

Speaking of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project, Novak said that Russia is sure that the project will be completed.

“We are confident that the Nord Stream-2 will be completed, especially since measures are already being taken to complete it,” he said.

Any sanctions are negative for commercial projects such as the Nord Stream-2, but it is necessary to adjust and keep working, Novak added.

End