LONDON: The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its friends have just received some uncomfortable reading. The latest forecasts from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) suggest that their agreements to boost prices and hasten the rebalancing of oil supply and demand by cutting output may bring the US shale industry out of hibernation faster than they might like.
The EIA’s monthly report published last Tuesday raised its forecast of global oil demand growth for 2017 to 1.63 million barrels a day from last month’s 1.56 million, its third successive increase – that should be good news for producers.