World Energy Outlook: oil-price pressure

While crude demand will grow over the long-term, vast US reserves and lower cost production will keep a lid on prices, says the International Energy Agency

The need to replace existing oil reserves, if nothing else, is likely to keep explorers busy over the next two decades. Yet the International Energy Agency's forecast of sluggish demand growth—and its expectation that US oil production is likely to remain resilient for years to come-is hardly likely to lift hearts among those seeking fresh reserves elsewhere. The Paris-based think tank forecasts in its World Energy Outlook 2017 that the US will account for 80% of the increase in global oil supply to 2025, helping to keep a lid on the oil price, which it sees as rising to around $83 a barrel in that year under its middle-of the-road New Policies Scenario, and only $72/b in its Sustainable Dev