Quarterly Oil Market Update (Q4 2014)
Oil Market ReportGlobal oil balances will increase in Q1 2015 as oil demand remains subdued but oil supply continues to expand from the US, Russia and Iraq. All of this will maintain pressure on oil prices in the first quarter. Beyond Q1 2015 we see prices recovering, with a sharper rebound in H2 2015, due to a group of factors. Regardless of lower price environment, Saudi Arabias strategy is clearly to maintain market share in key export countries and, as a result, we see production falling only slightly in the next two years. We project full year average production in 2015 at 9.6 mbpd, declining to 9.4 mbpd in 2016.
Quarterly GDP update: (Oil sector pushes up overall growth in Q1-15)
Oil Market ReportLatest data released by CDSI show a Saudi economic growth of 2.4 percent year-on-year, 0.8 percentage point higher than in the fourth quarter of last year. Contribution to growth has remained unchanged with the non-oil sector becoming once again the main growth driver, while oil sector growth and contribution have turned positive for the first time since Q2-14. We assume that annual economic growth will trend higher for the remainder of the year, owing to an increase in oil output, while the non-oil private sector remains robust.
