SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Global oil demand is unlikely to get a significant boost from the roll-out of vaccines against the novel coronavirus until later in 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
“It is far too early to know how and when vaccines will allow normal life to resume. For now, our forecasts do not anticipate a significant impact in the first half of 2021,” the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly report, according to Reuters.
“The poor outlook for demand and rising production in some countries … suggest that the current fundamentals are too weak to offer firm support to prices.”
Brent crude fell 0.8% to $43.46 a barrel in early London trade, snapping three straight days of gains.
It cited a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in Europe and the United States and renewed lockdown measures for revising down its outlook for global oil demand for 2020 by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared with its last estimate.
The IEA warned that plans by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia to boos output by 2 million bpd from January would means supply would outweigh demand, Reuters reported.
“Unless the fundamentals change, the task of re-balancing the market will make slow progress,” the IEA said.
