Oil demand growth will remain robust over the next two and a half decades as the world population grows, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Tuesday.
The organization expects a 24% increase in the world’s energy needs between now and 2050, with oil demand surpassing 120 million barrels per day over that time period.
That estimate is in line with the group’s 2024 World Oil Outlook.
“There is no peak in oil demand on the horizon,” Al Ghais said, speaking at the Global Energy Show in Calgary, Alberta.
He said that OPEC admired what Canada’s oil industry has done to increase its oil output in recent years.
OPEC is unwinding its output cuts at a faster pace than originally anticipated, lifting production by 411,000 barrels per day for May, June and July. The increases, along with concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war will weaken the global economy, have pressured oil prices in recent months.
Global Brent futures were trading at $67.28 a barrel on Tuesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday said it expected Brent oil prices to fall near $60 a barrel by the end of the year and average $59 a barrel next year, hitting U.S. oil production.
Al Ghais on Tuesday also said OPEC welcomed recent pushback against what he referred to as unrealistic climate goals, stressing the need to reduce emissions but not pick and choose between energy sources.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Writing by Liz Hampton in Denver, Editing by Franklin Paul and Tomasz Janowski)