Opec admits shale supplies will hit demand for its members’ oil
OPEC acknowledged for the first time yesterday that technology for extracting oil and gas from shale is changing the global supply picture significantly, and said demand for crude would rise more slowly than it had previously expected.
In its annual World Oil Outlook, Opec (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) cut its forecast of global oil demand to 2016 due to economic weakness and also increased its forecast of supplies from countries outside the 12-nation group.
“Given recent significant increases in North American shale oil and shale gas production, it is now clear that these resources might play an increasingly important role in non-OPEC medium-and long-term supply prospects,” it said in the report.
Shale involves so called fracking, a system of hydraulic fracturing to release oil and gas from rocks.