Day: April 11, 2024

The global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 remains broadly unchanged from last month’s assessment of 2.2 mb/d (million barrels per day), according to OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report.

The MOMR – April 2024, released on Thursday, noted that slight adjustments were made to the 1Q-24 data, with a slight upward revision in OECD Europe and some non-OECD data, reflecting better-than-expected performance in oil demand data.

“This increase was offset by a downward revision to Africa in 1Q-24 and the Middle East in the first three quarters,” it reads.

Accordingly, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is projected to expand by around 0.3 mb/d and the non-OECD by about 2.0 mb/d. In 2025, global oil demand is expected to see robust growth of 1.8 mb/d, y-o-y (year-on-year). The OECD is expected to grow by 0.1 mb/d, y-o-y, while demand in the non-OECD is forecast to increase by 1.7 mb/d. The world economic growth forecasts for 2024 and 2025 remain unchanged at 2.8 percent and 2.9 percent
, respectively, the report pointed out.

In the United States, economic growth for 2024 is revised up slightly to 2.1 percent, as the healthy momentum from 2H-23 is expected to carry into 2024, while the forecast for 2025 remains at 1.7 percent.

The economic growth forecast for the Eurozone remains at 0.5 percent for 2024 and 1.2 percent for 2025.

Japan’s economic growth forecast is also unchanged at 0.8 percent in 2024 and one percent in 2025. Meanwhile, China’s economic growth forecast remains at 4.8 percent in 2024 and 4.6 percent in 2025. India’s economic growth forecast is unchanged at 6.6 percent for 2024 and 6.3 percent for 2025.

Brazil’s economic growth forecast remains at 1.6 percent for 2024, and 1.9 percent for 2025. The ongoing robust performance of Russia’s economy leads to upward revisions for both the 2024 and 2025 growth forecasts, now standing at two percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. Regarding crude oil price movements, the report said the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) value increased b
y USD 2.99 or 3.7 percent in March, m-o-m, to average USD 84.22/b. Oil futures prices averaged higher, with the ICE Brent front-month contract rising by USD 2.95, or 3.6 percent, m-o-m, to USD 84.67/b, and the NYMEX WTI front-month contract up by USD 3.80, or 5.0 percent, m-o-m, to average at USD 80.41/b. The DME Oman front-month contract rose by USD 3.30, or 4.1 percent, m-o-m, to settle at USD 84.25/b. The front-month ICE Brent/NYMEX WTI spread narrowed further by 85?S to average USD 4.26/b.

The market structures of oil futures prices strengthened and remained in backwardation as money managers turned increasingly bullish about oil.

Source: Kuwait News Agency

ABU DHABI: The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said today that the country will be affected by an unstable weather condition as a result of an extension of a low surface pressure from the southwest, accompanied by humid southeasterly winds, along with an extension of upper air pressure, accompanied by an air current from the northwest.

On Sunday, the weather is expected to be partly cloudy to cloudy at times, with a light to moderate rainfall that might be heavy at times in some areas, especially over internal and southern areas.

Monday and Tuesday will see the low pressure deepen and the number of clouds increase over scattered areas, accompanied by convective clouds, with rainfall of different intensities over scattered areas, in the form of waves with lightning and thunder, and may be associated with hail at times over some areas.

On Wednesday, cloud amounts will gradually decrease with the continuation of rainfall during the daytime over some areas, especially over northern and eastern areas with
a decrease in temperatures.

Winds will be moderate to fresh south-easterly to north-easterly, becoming north-westerly winds and strong at times, especially with convective clouds and causing blowing dust and sand reducing the horizontal visibility and the flying of some solid objects. The wind speed will decrease on Wednesday to become moderate to fresh at times.

Seas will be moderate to rough and very rough at times, especially with cloud activity on Monday and Tuesday in the Arabian Gulf and Oman Sea, becoming moderate on Wednesday.

Source: Emirates News Agency

MOSCOW: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (a TASS special reporter in space) and Nikolay Chub will embark on their next spacewalk on 25th-26th April, the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) announced.

“Preparations [were carried out] for the extravehicular activity under the Russian (VKD-62) programme scheduled for April 25-26, in particular, equipment for experiments was prepared,” Roscosmos said in its 9th April report on the cosmonauts’ activity.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Kononenko and Chub are currently on a yearlong space mission aboard the International Space Station, according to TASS.

Kononenko said in July 2023 that four spacewalks were planned for the ongoing space mission. The cosmonauts conducted one spacewalk overnight to October 26 when they disconnected the hydraulic circuits of the radiator heat exchanger, which had leaked on 9th October, and photographed the coolant leak location.

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI: President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today exchanged Eid Al Fitr greetings during a phone call with His Excellency Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

During the call, His Highness and the Mauritanian President shared congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr and prayed that God continues to bestow His blessings on their countries and peoples.

They also expressed their hopes for God to grant stability and prosperity to Arab and Muslim nations and to the whole world.

Source: Emirates News Agency

Kuche: Tarim Basin, a major natural gas source in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has seen vigorous development with 12 new gas wells in being put into operation in Tarim Oilfield since the beginning of the year, elevating the gas supply capability in southern Xinjiang.

According to a report from China Central Television, the advancements have resulted in the oilfield’s daily gas supply averaging over 16 million cubic meters. Furthermore, new infrastructure allows this gas to be transported through a 4,000-kilometer pipeline extending from Xinjiang to the eastern metropolis of Shanghai, as confirmed by oilfield operators.

“We have connected the natural gas pipeline network in Southern Xinjiang with the west-east gas pipeline network by building new pipelines. Branch lines covering a wider range of counties and villages have also been built, and we have set up four compressor stations to elevate gas supply capability,” said Chang Guichuan, head of the transportation and marketing departme
nt of PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Branch.

New natural gas reserves have been found in Tarim Oilfield with the help of new exploratory wells. A new natural gas processing plant has been built on the Pamirs Plateau, pushing up the area’s daily processing capacity from one million cubic meters to three million cubic meters.

With the establishment of Bozi natural gas processing plant in the southern parts of the Tian Shan mountains, the gas-bearing area is able to process over 30 million cubic meters of natural gas.

A total of 32 oil and gas fields have been built surrounding the Tarim basin since the country started an exploration campaign in the area 35 years ago.

The area has proven oil and gas reserves reaching 3.5 billion tonnes of oil equivalent and has a total gas output of over 400 billion cubic meters.

Oil and gas exploration and production have driven high-quality socio-economic development in Xinjiang and have also helped ensure China’s energy security.

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI: H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, received a phone call from Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

During the phone call, the two ministers exchanged greetings on Eid Al Fitr, and reviewed bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them to serve the mutual benefit of the two neighbouring countries and the region.

Source: Emirates News Agency

GENEVA: The number of lives lost due to viral hepatitis is increasing, and the disease is the second leading infectious cause of death globally — with 1.3 million deaths per year, the same as tuberculosis, a top infectious killer, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2024 Global Hepatitis Report.

The report, released at the World Hepatitis Summit, highlights that despite better tools for diagnosis and treatment, and decreasing product prices, testing and treatment coverage rates have stalled. But, reaching the WHO elimination goal by 2030 should still be achievable, if swift actions are taken now.

New data from 187 countries show that the estimated number of deaths from viral hepatitis increased from 1.1 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022. Of these, 83% were caused by hepatitis B, and 17% by hepatitis C. Every day, there are 3,500 people dying globally due to hepatitis B and C infections.

‘This report paints a troubling picture: despite progress globally in preventing hepatitis infections,
deaths are rising because far too few people with hepatitis are being diagnosed and treated,’ said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. ‘WHO is committed to supporting countries to use all the tools at their disposal – at access prices – to save lives and turn this trend around.’

Updated WHO estimates indicate that 254 million people live with hepatitis B and 50 million with hepatitis C in 2022. Half the burden of chronic hepatitis B and C infections is among people 30-54 years old, with 12% among children under 18 years of age. Men account for 58% of all cases.

New incidence estimates indicate a slight decrease compared to 2019, but the overall incidence of viral hepatitis remains high. In 2022, there were 2.2 million new infections, down from 2.5 million in 2019.

These include 1.2 million new hepatitis B infections and nearly 1 million new hepatitis C infections. More than 6000 people are getting newly infected with viral hepatitis each day.

The revised estimates are derived from enhanced
data from national prevalence surveys. They also indicate that prevention measures such as immunization and safe injections, along with the expansion of hepatitis C treatment, have contributed to reducing the incidence.

Across all regions, only 13% of people living with chronic hepatitis B infection had been diagnosed and approximately 3% (7 million) had received antiviral therapy at the end of 2022. Regarding hepatitis C, 36% had been diagnosed and 20% (12.5 million) had received curative treatment.

These results fall well below the global targets to treat 80% of people living with chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C by 2030. However, they do indicate slight but consistent improvement in diagnosis and treatment coverage since the last reported estimates in 2019. Specifically, hepatitis B diagnosis increased from 10% to 13% and treatment from 2% to 3%, and hepatitis C diagnosis from 21% to 36% and treatment from 13% to 20%.

The burden of viral hepatitis varies regionally. The WHO African Region bears 63% o
f new hepatitis B infections, yet despite this burden, only 18% of newborns in the region receive the hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination. In the Western Pacific Region, which accounts for 47% of hepatitis B deaths, treatment coverage stands at 23% among people diagnosed, which is far too low to reduce mortality.

The report outlines a series of actions to advance a public health approach to viral hepatitis, designed to accelerate progress towards ending the epidemic by 2030. They include:

expanding access to testing and diagnostics;

shifting from policies to implementation for equitable treatment;

strengthening primary care prevention efforts;

simplifying service delivery, optimizing product regulation and supply;

developing investment cases in priority countries;

mobilizing innovative financing;

using improved data for action; and

engaging affected communities and civil society and advancing research for improved diagnostics and potential cures for hepatitis B.

Source: Emirates News Agency