The IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol labeled last week’s Opec+ voluntary cut announcement an unfortunate surprise this week. Speaking during Columbia University’s Global Energy Summit, Mr Birol said “it will tighten the markets and it is unfortunate because Europe and the global economy is still fragile, inflation pressures are still there, this was not a very helpful surprise.”
Mr Birol warned that outlooks already pointed to a sharp tightening of markets in the second half of the year, noting that this would be exacerbated by the cuts. But these assessments revolve around forecasts of strong annual demand growth of more than 2mn b/d, which is far from guaranteed given concerns over the global economy. (CONTINUED - 729 WORDS)
