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OPEC: Brexit could dampen European oil demand

18 July 2016
Oil&Gas
energynomics

The U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union could dampen Europe’s appetite for oil and pose a risk to global economic growth, according to OPEC, writes the Wall Street Journal.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ assessment of oil demand growth in 2017 remained unchanged at 1.2 million barrels a day.

But the Vienna-based group downgraded its forecast of global economic growth in 2017 to 3%, down from 3.1%, and said growth in the eurozone would slow to 1.2% in 2017, down from 1.5% in 2016. Since economic growth and demand for crude are tied together, OPEC fears a spillover effect into oil.

Hedge funds and other investors have cut their bullish bets on oil prices to their lowest in more than four months, amid uncertainty about what impact Brexit will have on crude demand and amid continuing oversupply fears.

Oil prices are up more than 65% from decade-lows hit earlier this year when a spate of production outages took barrels off the over supplied market. But that recovery has stalled in recent weeks after the U.K.’s Brexit vote rattled financial markets, U.S. drillers ramped up activity and outages in key oil-producing regions wound down.

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