Riyadh — The oil market is currently balanced and demand is expected to average 104.5 million barrels per day this year, the CEO of Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Tuesday.
“I think the market is currently balanced today. Definitely the increase in interest rates, what happened in China, had an impact, but it is balanced in terms of demand-supply fundamentals,” Amin Nasser told the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh.
“We are looking at 104.5 an average for this year, the fourth quarter we are looking close to 106 million barrels,” he added.
Nasser was speaking after oil prices fell 6% on Monday, their lowest since Oct. 1, after Israel’s retaliatory strike on Iran at the weekend bypassed Tehran’s oil infrastructure.
On Tuesday, prices were up over 1%.
Declining oil demand from China, the world’s largest crude oil importer, has also been a drag on global oil consumption and prices.
Nasser said that in spite of a “small impact” on gasoline because of the build-up in electric vehicles and the economic situation, there was still growth in China.
“When people talk about China they are always trying to maximize the downside and ignoring the upside.”
Reporting by Yousef Saba, writing by Federico Maccioni, editing by Jan Harvey and David Evans – Reuters
