OPEC on Wednesday said world oil demand would ⁠rise at a similar pace in 2027 as this year and published data indicating a near balance between ⁠supply and demand ‌in 2026, contrasting with other forecasts of a major glut.

The 2027 forecast is in line with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' view that oil demand will rise at a ⁠relatively robust rate, and that moves to cleaner fuels will take place more slowly than some predictions.

OPEC expects oil demand to rise by 1.34 million barrels per day in 2027, close to the 1.38 million bpd growth expected this year, it said in a monthly report on its website. ⁠The outlook is OPEC's first 2027 projection ​in its monthly report. "Global economic activity is expected to maintain its strong performance in both 2026 and 2027," OPEC said in ‍the report.

The OPEC+ group comprising OPEC nations, plus Russia and other allies, began raising oil output last year after years of output cuts, ​and plans to pause production hikes in the first quarter of 2026, amid widespread predictions of oversupply.

OPEC+ pumped 42.83 million bpd in December 2025, down 238,000 bpd from November, driven by reductions in Kazakhstan, Russia and Venezuela, despite the output hike agreement in place for December, OPEC said in its monthly report.

The report forecast demand for OPEC+ crude will average 43 million bpd in 2026, unchanged from last month and close to what OPEC+ produced in December.

Should OPEC+ keep pumping at December's rate in 2026 and other things remain equal, production would be 170,000 bpd lower than demand, according to a Reuters calculation based on the OPEC report. This ⁠contrasts with the view of the IEA, whose most recent figures imply ‌global oil supply will exceed demand by almost 3.84 million bpd - an amount equal to almost 4% of world demand - this year.

OPEC's 2026 oil demand growth forecast is higher than the IEA's prediction of ‌860,000 bpd. The ⁠IEA updates its figures on Jan. 21 and has yet to publish a 2027 forecast in its monthly report.

(Reporting by ⁠Alex Lawler, Olesya Astakhova and Ahmad Ghaddar, Editing by Mark Potter, Elaine Hardcastle)