PTTEP Sees Oil Demand Returning to Pre-Covid Levels in 2022

PTT Exploration & Production PCL said it expected oil demand to recover to pre-Covid levels of 100 million barrels a day this year, although there could be some price weakness in the first quarter amid partial lockdowns due to the Omicron variant.

Supply was also likely to be weak, given Russia’s lower production and the lack of exploration and production investments over the past few years by many countries, the Thai energy producer said late Thursday.

PTTEP forecasts Dubai crude prices to average between $65/bbl and $85/bbl this year, compared with the average price of $69.4/bbl in 2021 and $42.3/bbl in 2020.

As for the global liquefied natural gas market, PTTEP said that oversupply was likely to prolong throughout 2022, with total production capacity of existing and upcoming LNG projects rising by 27 million tons per annum from 422 million tons per annum in 2021. This compares with expected LNG demand at 399 million tons per annum, it said.

PTTEP forecasts its average sales volume for the first quarter of 2022 at 436,000 barrels of oil equivalent, and for the full year at 467,000 BOE, driven by new production from Malaysia, Oman and Algeria.

The company reported a profit of $1.21 billion in 2021 compared with $720 million in the prior year. Its revenue was $7.31 billion in 2021 versus $5.36 billion in 2020.
Source: Dow Jones