MILAN: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec ) will continue with its supply adjustments for the oil market, the Opec Secretary General said on Saturday.
"We will continue to do what we know best to ensure we attain stability in the oil market on a sustainable basis," Mohammad Barkindo said in a webinar organised by Italian think-tank ISPI.
Oil prices fell on Thursday after Opec and its allies stuck to their existing policy of monthly oil output increases despite fears a release from US crude reserves and the new Omicron coronavirus variant would put renewed pressure on price.
Barkindo said in terms of oil demand the estimate at the moment was for a growth of 5.7 million barrels per day. "In 2022 we expect another 4.2 million," he said.
He said the uncertainty and volatility on the markets was also due to extraneous factors such as the ongoing Covid pandemic and not necessarily the fundamentals of oil and gas.
"Now we are on course of returning the level of consumption in 2022 to pre-Covid levels," he said.
Barkindo said that the forecast was for oil and gas to account for more than 50% of the global energy mix in 2045 or even to mid century.
"In all the pronouncements we had from Glasgow we have not yet seen any concrete road map or plans of how to replace this 50% ... without creating unprecedented turmoil in the energy markets," he said, referring to the Glasgow climate conference.
"Oil and gas will be needed for the foreseeable future." Meanwhile, Asia liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices fell this week as spot demand from China remained muted despite the start of winter and as natural gas supplies from Russia continued to flow steadily to Germany.
But the drop in prices was kept in check by outages in Australia which curbed cargo loadings, trade sources said.
The average LNG price for January delivery into Northeast Asia fell to $34.60 per metric million British thermal units (mmBtu), down $1.50, they said.
Chinese LNG buyers are pulling back on spot purchases of the super-chilled fuel as prices remain high and inventories are ample, several trade sources said.
Another source added that the government's tolerance of additional coal burning has also dampened appetite for more expensive LNG.
Beijing Gas entered the market to purchase LNG cargoes, but they are for delivery in the middle of next year.
Royal Dutch Shell shut production at its Prelude floating LNG site and Chevron Corp shut one of three processing units at its Gorgon LNG plant, both off northwestern Australia, the companies said.
Shell said Prelude was hit by a power outage on Thursday after smoke was detected in an electrical utility area, and the facility is operating on back-up diesel generators, while Chevron shut Train 3 at its 15.6 million tonne a year Gorgon LNG plant on Wednesday.
Neither company gave a timeframe for restoring output.
Cheniere Energy may have temporarily shut a production train at its Sabine Pass plant in the United States following dense fog, one source said, though details were not immediately available or confirmed.
South Korea's Korea Midland Power Co (KOMIPO) bought a cargo for delivery in mid-January at around $34 to $36 per mmBtu, an industry source said.
Russian natural gas supplies to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline have been stable for the past 24 hours, data from German network operator Gascade showed on Friday. — Reuters
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