Will Oil Demand Hit 123 Million Barrels Per Day By 2050 As OPEC Says?

Forbes

a day ago

(Photo: Bob Riha, Jr.)
Earlier this month, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries made yet another attempt to counter energy market chatter about oil demand peaking over the medium- to long-term.
At its biennial international seminar in Vienna, Austria from July 9 to 10, the oil producers' group said there was ample evidence in the market for the long-term need for black gold.
This need has now reached a point of definitiveness that no one is talking about peak oil demand any more if OPEC's World Oil Outlook 2050 - a fresh assessment report on emerging energy market trends - is to be believed.
In the foreword of the report, published just before the conclusion of the seminar, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said: "There is no peak oil demand on the horizon," given that "oil underpins the global economy and is central to our daily lives."
That said the producers' group actually cut its global oil demand forecasts for the next four years faced with lower growth in China, a spread of electric vehicles in key markets, and an uncertain macroeconomic climate in the OECD countries. However, it lifted its longer-term view.
Crude Projections On Oil Demand
That view is based on an assumption that oil will remain 'indispensable' in supporting the economic progress of developing countries, and ensuring the steady output of mission critical hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry, aviation and haulage.
As for the projection figures, the OPEC report forecast that oil demand will average 105 million barrels per day this year. It then expects demand to grow to average 106.3 million bpd in 2026, and then rise to 111.6 million bpd in 2029, and continue rising to as high as 123 million bpd by 2050.
'Despite a marginal decline in its share, oil is set to maintain the largest share in the energy mix in 2050, at just below 30%. The combined share of oil and gas is expected to stay above 50% between 2024 and 2050. At the same time, the share of other renewables in the energy mix increases to 13.5% in 2050, up by 10 percentage points from 2024,' the report noted further.
India, along with other Asian nations, the Middle East and Africa, are set to be the 'primary sources of long-term oil demand growth.' Combined demand in these four regions is set to increase by 22.4 million bpd between 2024 and 2050, the OPEC report noted, with India alone adding 8.2 million bpd.
'China's oil demand is projected to increase by less than 2 million bpd over the same time horizon. Moreover, a large part of China's increase is expected to occur over the medium-term, with fewer demand changes expected for the rest of the forecast period.'
Not Quite Some Say
However, OPEC's long-term oil demand projections don't quite align with what a number of other commentators think. The International Energy Agency expects global oil demand to peak at 105.6 million bpd in 2029 before marginally declining as the end of the current decade approaches.
Some in the industry also believe peak demand for oil is imminent this decade. Energy major BP said last year that it even may happen sooner than most people expect, including as early as this year under a specific set of circumstances, and given the rapid growth of renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the Energy Institute's recent Statistical Review of World Energy 2025, a global report that was once compiled by BP until very recently, did not directly predict a peak, but noted that some regions and nations - especially China - are seeing a slowdown or plateau in oil demand.
Given a 2050 horizon is more than two decades and a half away from now, predicting a peaking of oil demand or otherwise may have a direct corelation with the make-up of the global economy and varying regional productivity levels, boosted by digital tools, each year.
Maxime Darmet, Senior Economist for U.S., France and the UK at Allianz Trade said: 'In the coming decades, global productivity will be shaped by the adoption of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the enhancements and efficiencies they bring. This will likely drive up energy consumption, but also the efficient usage of energy. Countries that take the lead here would steal a march on others.'
The Allianz Trade economist believes given the time horizon when it comes to predicting energy consumption and which source would dominate 25 to 30 years from now will likely be a tricky guesstimate at best.
'Look at the turmoil the global economy is currently facing in the wake of U.S. tariffs slapped by President Donald Trump. Such developments can change the trajectory of demand (and supply) of most commodities however long or short that impact is. Oil is no exception.'
Furthermore, if the future of productivity, and indeed the global economy, is digital and AI driven requiring hyperscale data centers, then many including the likes of the IEA, energy majors Shell and Chevron, believe natural gas will likely be the near- to longer-term energy source that benefits.
Be that as it may, few dispute that hydrocarbons will be part of the global economy and its energy mix for a while yet.
Just that oil - OPEC's preferred one - might not be as dominant a source as the producers' group expects and hopes it would be. Therefore, the debate over peak oil demand and when it will occur won't be settled just yet.