Russia sees significant improvement in global oil demand in August: minister
Novak said demand, which was at around 100 million barrels per day (bpd) before the pandemic, dropped to 25 per cent below pre-crisis levels in April
MOSCOW: Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday he expected global oil demand to recover significantly in August and improve to 10 per cent below the levels seen prior to the coronavirus crisis.
Novak said demand, which was at around 100 million barrels per day (bpd) before the pandemic, dropped to 25 per cent below pre-crisis levels in April.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia agreed earlier this week to ease record oil supply curbs from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the pandemic, but said a second wave of the virus could complicate the rebalancing of the market.
OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, have been cutting oil output since May by 9.7 million bpd, or 10 per cent of global supply. Starting in August, the cuts will taper to 7.7 million bpd until December.
