OPEC trims forecasts for 2016 global demand growth for its oil

Demand for crude oil supplied by the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries was now expected to increase slightly less in 2016, the cartel said in its Monthly Oil Market Report for March.

In its latest MOMR, OPEC projected world demand for oil supplied by its members would jump by 1.8m barrels a day this year to reach 31.5m b/d, approximately 100,000 b/d less than it estimated one month ago.

That followed an identical downward revision to its estimate for the world's demand of OPEC oil in 2015.

However, the oil exporters' organisation also stood behind previous projections for global oil demand growth, estimating it would rise by 1.54m barrels a day to 92.98m b/d, just 20,000 b/d more than it estimated last month.

Likewise, supplies from countries outside of OPEC were still seen decreasing by 700,000 barrel per day in 2016, due to lower rig counts in Canada and the US and substantially less output from older fields.

Output of non gas liquids from OPEC, on ther other hand, was set to increase by 170,000 b/d, after an increase of 150,000 b/d in 2015.

OPEC's crude oil production decreased by 175,000 b/d in February 2016, to average 32.28m b/d, the organisation said, citing third-party estimates.

Commercial oil stocks in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development rose in January to the equivalent of 65.3 days of forward cover, some 6.8 days above the five-year average.

As of 15:53GMT front month Brent crude oil futures were down by 2.826% to $39.27 on the ICE.