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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) lowered its forecast for next year’s global oil demand growth for the third consecutive month. The OPEC based its re-assessment on the expectations for delay in economic development, trade disputes and volatile emerging markets.

In its monthly report, OPEC estimates that global demand for oil would increase by 1.36 million barrels per day next year, which is 50,000 barrels per day less than its previous projection.

The cartel also lowered the demand for 2019 for its own crude oil by another 300,000 barrels per day to 31.8 million barrels per day. This is a drop of 900,000 barrels compared to the 2018 forecast.

The OPEC announced that its own production increased by 132,000 barrels per day in September to 32.76 million barrels per day, the highest reported level since the August 2017.

Saudi Arabia and Libya have increased production last month with 108,000 and 103,000 barrels per day respectively. Together, the data for both countries significantly offset the decline in exports from Iran by 150,000 barrels of oil per day. According to Iran’s data provided to OPEC, the production of the Middle East country has declined by only 51,000 barrels to 3.775 million barrels per day.

OPEC is committed to increasing production to offset the loss of Iranian supplies, due to US sanctions that come into effect next month. The cartel cut its forecast for growth of oil supplies outside OPEC in 2019 by 30,000 barrels to 2.12 million barrels per day.

The oil production in the US is expected to grow by 1.39 million barrels to a record 10.74 million barrels, according to the monthly forecast of the Energy Information Administration.