OPEC MONTHLY OIL MARKET REPORT

"The adjustment mainly reflects better-than-expected oil demand data from OECD America and China" said in the OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report." Global oil demand is estimated to have grown by 0.95 mb/d in 2014, representing an upward revision of 20 tb/d from the previous month."

The OPEC Reference Basket averaged at 59.46 dollars per barrell in December, following a decline of 16.11 dollars or 21 percent. In annual terms, the Basket averaged 96.29 dollars per barrell in 2014, representing a decline of 9.58 dollars from the previous year.

ICE Brent in December plunged 16.36  dollars to stand at 63.27 dollars per barrell, averaging 99.45 dollars per barrell for the year. Nymex WTI lost 16.52 dollars to stand at 59.29 dollars per barrell in December, for a yearly value of 92.97 dollars per barrell. The Brent-WTI spread stood at 3.98 dollars per barrell.

World economic growth for 2014 and 2015 remained unchanged from the previous month at 3.2 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, said in tpe OPEC report. "The OECD growth estimate is unchanged at 1.8 percent for 2014, but the 2015 forecast has been revised to 2.2 percent from 2.1 percent. The forecasts for China and India remain unchanged at 7.2 percent and 5.8 percent in 2015, respectively."