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OPEC's modest cut to 2024 oil need does not show weak China: Russell

OPEC's modest cut to its international petroleum need projection for 2024 still leaves the producer group with a price quote that will need an extremely strong 4th quarter.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). reduced its projection for need development this year to 2.11 million. barrels daily (bpd) in its monthly market report released on. Monday.

This was down 140,000 bpd from its previous quote, and. OPEC referred to softening expectations for China's oil demand. development in 2024.

However the information of OPEC's most current forecast still shows that it. anticipates China's need development to be far more powerful for the whole. of 2024 than it has actually been so far this year.

OPEC anticipates China's oil need will increase by 700,000 bpd in. 2024, which indicates that the world's largest unrefined importer will. account for one-third of the worldwide boost.

The August forecast for China's need development is simply 60,000. bpd below OPEC's previous quote.

This is a reasonably small change and indicates that if OPEC. is to be shown proper, China's need will have to rise. greatly in coming months.

This is because China's imports of crude oil have actually been. weaker over the very first seven months of the year.

Official information launched last week revealed petroleum imports. dropped to 9.97 million bpd in July, the most affordable every day. given that September 2022, and below June's 11.3 million bpd.

For the first seven months of the year crude imports were. 10.90 million bpd, down 2.9% from the 11.22 million bpd over the. very same period in 2023.

This implies that China's oil imports have to do with 320,000 bpd. lower in the very first seven months of 2024 compared with the exact same. period in 2015.

It's difficult to fix up the drop in oil imports with OPEC's. still reasonably bullish projection for China's 2024 oil need. development.

Of course, imports aren't the only factor in overall demand,. the others consisting of domestic oil production, movements in. inventories and net exports of refined fuels.

But imports form the huge part of China's overall demand and. it will be their performance that identifies whether OPEC's. forecast can be satisfied.

China doesn't disclose motions in petroleum and product. stocks, however an estimate can be made by deducting the. volume of unrefined processed from the overall oil available to. refineries from imports and domestic output.

On this basis China has included about 900,000 bpd to. stocks in the first half of this year, which suggests it isn't. drawing on them to satisfy demand growth.

Domestic oil production was 4.39 million bpd in the first. six months of 2024, up 1.9% or about 150,000 bpd from the very same. period last year.

Nevertheless, the boost in domestic oil output will exacerbate. the supply-demand imbalance coming from the softness in. China's unrefined sector.

CHINA HEALING?

The question is whether a recovery for the rest of the. year is most likely.

China's economy is still not firing on all cylinders, with. the crucial building and construction sector struggling, manufacturing indexes. revealing contraction and retail sales growth reducing.

While the fourth quarter may lastly see some economic. acceleration on the back of Beijing's stimulus efforts, it's. unlikely to be enough to boost oil demand to the level of OPEC's. expectations.

If OPEC's modest cut to its international need forecast for 2024. isn't enough, it ends up being more likely it and its allies in the. broader OPEC+ group will defer their strategies to wind back a few of. their output cuts from October onwards.

OPEC+ last month verified a strategy to start relaxing the. newest layer of output cuts of 2.2 million bpd from. October, however also emphasised that this process might be stopped briefly or. reversed if required.

Unless China's oil need does shock to the benefit in. coming months, it's most likely that OPEC+ will choose to work out. its caution on the scheduled increase in production from October.

The opinions revealed here are those of the author, a columnist. .

(source: Reuters)