Bloomberg reported that in 2023 "the thirst for oil will be difficult to quench"

The looming crisis shows that even as the world embraces cleaner energy sources, "the thirst for oil will be hard to quench." While the supply cut has been a boon for crude oil producers and their investors, it is hurting consumers and complicating central banks' efforts to curb inflation, writes Bloomberg.

The International Economic Agency (IEA) said that oil consumption will reach a record level in 2023, as supply does not keep up with demand amid a special operation in Ukraine, a slowdown in U.S. shale production and insufficient investment in production.

The price of oil is expected to rise to $100 a barrel in the fourth quarter of 2023 as global inventories shrink and the money supply stabilizes, Goldman Sachs head of commodities research Geoff Curry said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on March 1.

“I am quite confident that we will see another price spike in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.

This will be affected by China's lifting of its strict COVID-19 policy and the resumption of full-fledged work in the country and the expected overload of global spare production capacity, he said .

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in an interview that "the demand from China [for oil] is very high."

“My take, in short, is that perhaps people are underestimating demand and overestimating U.S. production,” said Saad Rahim, chief economist at trader Trafigura Group, on the sidelines of the International Energy Week conference.

Production in shale basins is growing at a slower rate as producers run out of suitable drilling sites. U.S. production fell at the start of the pandemic and is still around 800,000 bbl. per day, below the record 13.1 million reached in early 2020. Growth is likely to be around 560,000 barrels this year, according to research firm Enverus. in a day.

The slowdown is happening even as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and other companies are pumping more oil out of the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on March 1 that global spare capacity is limited and a rise in U.S. shale oil supply is unlikely to fill the gap if demand picks up later this year, leaving OPEC to remain the world's top producer. .

Earlier, the founder of Andurand Capital, Pierre Andurand, said that world oil prices have fallen too much in recent months, and therefore, in 2023, against the backdrop of a recovery in oil demand in China, a barrel will again rise in price to $140.

“The opening of China will lead to a much stronger increase in oil demand than previously expected,” he believes.

According to him, thanks to the recovery of the Chinese economy, global oil demand could grow by 4 million barrels. per day, while usually the average annual growth was four times less. In this regard, even the absence of problems with the supply of oil from Russia to the world market will not delay the rise in prices.