IEA sees global oil market surplus for 2025 as demand disappoints

The IEA revised down its 2025 oil demand growth forecast. Shutterstock
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LONDON: Global oil supply could exceed demand by around 600,000 barrels per day this year, the International Energy Agency said in a monthly oil market report on Thursday, after a downward revision to its 2025 demand growth forecast.

That surplus could grow by a further 400,000 bpd if OPEC+ extends its unwinding of output cuts, and fails to rein in overproduction against quotas, the Paris-based agency said.

The IEA revised down its 2025 oil demand growth forecast by 70,000 bpd to around 1 million bpd, with growth driven largely by Asia, specifically China’s petrochemical industry.

It added that demand for the last quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of this year had come in below expectations amid “an unusually uncertain macroeconomic climate.”

“New US tariffs, combined with escalating retaliatory measures, tilted macro risks to the downside. Recent oil demand data have underwhelmed, and growth estimates for 4Q24 and 1Q25 have been marginally downgraded,” said the agency.