OPEC believes the world will need less crude oil from the organiztion in 2013 than it did last year as the significant impact of recession curtails demand and rising biofuels supply makes up fo shrinking production elsewhere.

According to the Houston Chronicle, "the Orgainzation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose members supply about 40 percent of the world's oil, slashed its forecast for global oil consumption in 2013 to satisfy demand, compared with 31.2 million barrels last year, it predicted in an annual report today."

The group's Vienna-based secretariat spoke about its 'World Oil Outlook' published today and is quoted as saying, "there is a growing perception that the economicslowdown will be U-shaped, that is the recovery will gather momentum slowly over the medium term, returning back to 2008 levels by around 2013.

As reported by the Chronicle, "oil's slump from record high prices in July last year led OPEC to agree on production cuts of 4.2 million barrels a day as the worst global recession since the Second World War reduced oil demand. The group has pledged to maintain its cuts, even as prices recovered above $60 a barrel on optimism that the worst of the recession is over."

OPEC makes estimates on the world's need for crude or so-called "call on OPEC crude" by comparing global oil demand with supplies of crude, natural gas liquids and non-conventional fuels from outside the group, such as biofuels and Canada's oil sands, in addition to OPEC's own natural gas liquids and non-conventional fuel supplies."

The Chronicle reports that, "the slump in demand has also led the group to lower its estimate for the amount of investment in new production required through 2013 by 30 percent to about $115 billion on new capacity. That compares with last year's production of $165 billion."

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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