BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 18. The global oil demand reached its highest level ever recorded by JODI-reporting countries in March, surging by 3.0 million barrels per day (mb/d) compared to the previous month, Trend reports via JODI.
The robust increase was primarily fueled by significant growth in oil consumption from China and the United States. China's total product demand experienced a remarkable surge, rising by 1.6 mb/d in March to reach 16.79 mb/d. This figure marks the third-highest level ever reported for the country in JODI.
Conversely, global crude oil production declined by 0.5 mb/d in March, primarily driven by lower production outputs from major players such as the US, China, Angola, Canada, and the UK.
As for inventories, global refined product stocks witnessed a substantial decline of 39.6 million barrels in March, while crude inventories experienced a more modest decrease of 0.7 million barrels. Overall, total crude and product inventories remain 336 million barrels below the five-year average.
The latest update did not include March data for Russia, although February's oil data for the country was included for the first time. In February, Russian crude production saw a 133 kb/d increase, leaving it 116 kb/d below the levels seen a year ago.
In the natural gas sector, global demand experienced a seasonal decline of 14.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) in March.
Within the EU+UK region, natural gas demand also witnessed a decline of 3.0 bcm, reaching a level approximately 16 percent below the seasonal average. The region's gas inventories drew down by 4.96 bcm in March, leaving them at 54 percent of their total capacity by month-end.
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