The chief executive of Kuwait's state-owned KPC said he is optimistic that China's demand for oil will continue to grow in a "sustained" way in the second half of the year, despite some macroeconomic indicators suggesting that the country's post-lockdown recovery could be running out of steam.
Speaking on a podcast released by the Doha-based Al-Attiyah Foundation on Thursday, Sheikh Nawaf al-Sabah said his view on China's oil demand recovery has been "consistent" since the start of this year, based on continued strong interest in Kuwaiti crude from Chinese refiners.
"Those customers continue to demand at least similar amounts of crude, if not more," he said.
Beyond this year, al-Sabah said he expects global oil demand to remain strong "and to actually increase over the coming years". This is in line with the IEA's medium-term outlook, issued yesterday, which forecast oil demand will continue growing up to 2028, albeit at a slower pace than this year.
But while the IEA said it expects oil demand to peak by 2030 as the energy transition gathers pace, al-Sabah sounded more optimistic on the longer-term prospects for oil.
"At the end of any energy transition, oil will remain a part of the energy mix," he said. "Right now, it's about a third of the energy mix. In the future, it may go down to a quarter, but the pie will be larger. So a quarter of a larger pie, of more energy demand, will still be robust for crude oil."
