While the IEA believes Omicron will dent global oil demand, OPEC remains confident that demand will continue to bounce back strongly from its pandemic lows. Chart of the Week – Despite fears of Omicron playing a large role in markets and the media, OPEC raised its global oil demand forecast for Q1 2022 this week, arguing that Omicron would only have a mild and brief impact. – In its monthly report, OPEC expects world oil demand to average 99.1 million b/d over January-March 2022, more than 1 million b/d higher than its forecast a month ago. – Having hiked next year’s annual average, too, OPEC forecasts global crude intake to average 100.8 million b/d in 2022, roughly on par with the pre-pandemic year of 2019. – Simultaneously, the December report shows that Saudi Arabia and Iraq continue to lead OPEC in terms of month-on-month production increases, on the back […]