OPEC has reduced the forecast for oil demand for the third time since the beginning of the year.

Organization of the countries - exporters of petroleum (OPEC) for the third time since the beginning of the year has revised the forecast for oil demand in 2009, reports AFP. According to a new assessment of OPEC, because of the global financial and economic crisis of world oil demand in 2009 will decline by 1.01 million barrels a day, or 1.18 per cent. Its forecast of OPEC economists have made on the basis of the "terrible" situation in the world economy.
In February 2009, OPEC forecast that oil demand this year will decrease by 0.58 million barrels per day (0.67 percent). In doing so, OPEC expected that a persistent decline in demand will occur during the first three quarters of this year.
It is estimated that OPEC, in 2008, world oil demand fell by 0.22 per cent, or 0.19 million barrels per day. In total, the global demand for oil was 85.7 million barrels per day.
Earlier, OPEC has asked Russia to reduce oil production at a value greater than that formed due to natural decline in demand. What Russia should reduce the amount of prey, cartel did not specify. In 2008, Russia recorded the decline in oil production. Compared to 2007 the reduction of this indicator was 0.7 percent. In total last year, Russia produced 488.1 million tons of oil.
In late January, Secretary-General of the OPEC Abdalla Salem El-Badri has promised a new quota reduction of oil production if prices continue to fall. It was expected that the organization may decide to do so on March 15, at its regular meeting to be held in Vienna.
Since September 2008, OPEC has reduced production volumes at 4.2 million barrels a day. Prior to this cartel extracted about 31 million barrels per day.
Earlier the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that the decline in oil consumption in the world is connected with the collapse of the economies in Russia and the USA. According to the IEA, OPEC in the near future should not reduce the extraction: because of the shortage of hydrocarbons in the market of raw material consumption will fall even more, which only deepen the world crisis.
In January IEA lowered the forecast for world oil demand in 2009 to 570 thousand barrels per day. In total, the global demand for oil in 2009 would be 84.7 million barrels. It is believed to IEA, the reduced demand for oil this year will be the strongest since 1982.
The global financial crisis is considered to be the main cause of the fall in oil prices on the world market. In 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund, global economic growth will be calculated the value of "below zero". The World Bank also believes that in 2009 the world economy enters a phase of recession for the first time since the end of the Second World War.