Repi Opec News Today

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in major gas-producer Qatar on Tuesday for the final leg of a Gulf tour that has focused on securing energy supplies and promoting Japanese high-tech.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it remains committed to secure oil supplies for Japan and will continue cooperating with Tokyo on clean hydrogen, ammonia and recycled carbon fuels.

A series of oil supply disruptions across the globe has helped push Brent crude prices above $81 a barrel for the first time since April.

Oil demand is set to hit a record high this year and the market is tightening but economic headwinds and interest rate hikes have deflated growth expectations slightly, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

Extra crude production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and Russia have removed some downside risk and stemmed the erosion of the spot prices and calendar spreads evident since early in the second quarter.

There are currently 10.5 million barrels of Saudi crude in floating storage off the Egyptian Red Sea port of Ain Sukhna, down by almost half from mid-June, according to data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.

OPEC will likely maintain an upbeat view on oil demand growth for next year when it publishes its first outlook later this month, predicting a slowdown from this year but still an above-average increase, sources close to OPEC said.

OPEC expects global oil demand to rise to 110 million barrels per day (bpd) and overall energy demand to rise 23% by 2045, its Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Monday.

Muted increases in U.S. oil production and cuts by the OPEC+ producing-nations group will limit crude supply in the months ahead, pushing up prices, an executive at U.S. shale producer EOG Resources said on Wednesday.

Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy giant Rosneft , said on Saturday that Russia is losing out to OPEC+ countries due to a smaller share of its oil exports in production.