The International Energy Agency (IEA) revised up its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2026 on Wednesday, saying a global oil glut was easing concerns about geopolitical risks, Reuters reported.

In its first oil market report of the year, the IEA said it expected global oil demand to grow by 930,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, compared with an increase of 860,000 bpd forecast in its previous report. As a result, the IEA estimates that oil demand will reach 105 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2026, after reaching 104 mb/d in 2025, according to Agerpres.

Global oil supply is also expected to increase by 2.5 mb/d in 2026 to 108.7 mb/d, after an increase of 3 mb/d in 2025, which brought it to 106.2 mb/d. In these conditions, the IEA report predicts an oil oversupply of 3.7 mb/d in 2026, a larger gap than in 2025 (2.2 mb/d).

The IEA’s latest forecasts are lower than those of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which estimates that in 2026 demand for black gold will increase by 1.4 mb/d and consumption is estimated at 106.5 mb/d, according to projections published on January 14.

Also on Wednesday, the International Energy Agency said a global oil glut was easing concerns about geopolitical risks to oil production and exports from Venezuela, Iran and Russia. “While it is too early to assess the full implications of these recent geopolitical developments for oil markets, for now, the bloated inventories provide some comfort to market participants and have kept prices under control,” the IEA said.