The 10th Joint OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) has rejected US calls for increasing crude oil output to drive global oil prices down. The JMMC, which included in particular Russia and Saudi Arabia, has agreed to maintain the current oil output level and made a formal recommendation that prices would not be cut.
Besides, the OPEC has published the World Oil Outlook 2018 and revised the long-term global oil demand forecast: the organisation expects total crude oil demand to increase by 14.5 mb/d to reach 111.7 mb/d in 2040. The demand growth is likely to be driven by non-OECD regions, which could post a 23 mb/d increase by 2040. The OPEC also predicts that oil will remain the fuel with the largest share in the global energy mix throughout the forecast period to 2040. The share of OPEC crude oil in the global supply is predicted to rise from the current 34% in 2017 to 36% in 2040, while the demand for OPEC crude oil is estimated to rise to 40 mb/d in 2040, up from the current 32 mb/d in 2018.
The global vehicle fleet (comprising both passenger and commercial vehicles) is projected to ramp up to around 2.4 bn in 2040 and even though the majority of the growth continues to be for conventional vehicles, the long-term share of electric vehicles in the total fleet is forecast to grow and reach a level of 13% by 2040 thanks to policy support and falling battery costs.