Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday he expected global oil demand to recover significantly in August and improve to 10% below the levels seen prior to the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported.
Novak said demand, which was at around 100 million barrels per day (bpd) before the pandemic, dropped to 25% below pre-crisis levels in April.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia agreed earlier this week to ease record oil supply curbs from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the pandemic, but said a second wave of the virus could complicate the rebalancing of the market.
OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, have been cutting oil output since May by 9.7 million bpd, or 10% of global supply. Starting in August, the cuts will taper to 7.7 million bpd until December.
