Saudi Energy Minister: Global Oil Demand Is Expected To Return To 97 Percent of Pre-epidemic Levels By the End of the Year

Global oil demand is expected to return to 97 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of 2020, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said On Tuesday night at a video conference of Opec and Opec + ministers.

In his opening remarks, Abdulaziz said the international crude oil market had shown signs of improvement over the past few days, particularly as a reduction in global inventory levels and a rapid rebound in fuel demand had kept the crude oil market stable, but remained wary of the negative impact of a possible second peak of the epidemic.

The Saudi-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and non-OPEC producers such as Russia agreed in mid-April to cut their largest crude output in history. However, some of them failed to complete their share of the reduction in May and July due to various reasons, so they decided to implement compensatory cuts in August and September.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister said in his speech that the countries involved in the agreement had completed 97 percent of the cuts in July, stressing that they should complete all the agreed cuts by the end of September to ensure the next phase of the agreement is implemented smoothly.