“We are talking about 22 years [until 2040], and we know it takes about five years from deciding to invest to finalize the project. So I think we as OPEC are keen to see this restoration in the market and to work with everyone,” he said.
The producer group’s president’s comments come as BP PLC BP -0.25% BP. 0.20% released its annual energy outlook, which shows the peak in oil demand coming sooner than previously seen as renewables shoulder a bigger share of the burden.
The global appetite for oil and other liquid fuels will keep increasing until about 2035 to reach 110.3 million barrels a day, BP said in its main outlook scenario Tuesday, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Demand will then flatline before dwindling in the years to 2040, it predicted. Previously, BP had forecast that demand for crude oil would keep growing until the 2040s.
In its annual World Outlook published in November, OPEC said that the appetite for oil would hit 111.1 million barrels a day in 2040, driven by high population growth and a growing middle class in developing countries.
Even as stepped-up U.S. shale-oil production threatens to hurt its efforts to rebalance the market, OPEC has committed to sticking with petroleum output cuts for the rest of 2018. The cartel and 10 allies, including Russia, renewed their pact to cut production in November, helping push prices CLH8 0.15% as high as $70 in January.
Al-Mazroui said Tuesday there is an “aspiration” that OPEC and the group of noncartel countries in the output deal can continue their cooperation beyond 2018.