PARIS: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Wednesday that it expects healthy growth in global demand for crude in 2024. It said global oil demand should grow by 2.2 million barrels per day next year to an average of 104.36 million bpd. “Oil demand is expected to be supported by resilient global GDP growth, amid continued improvements in economic activity in China,” OPEC said in its regular monthly report on the oil market. Demand in the industrialized nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is expected to increase by 0.3 million bpd to reach an average of 46.1 million bpd, but still remain below the record set in 2019. Demand in non-OECD nations is seen as rising by 2 million bpd to 58.3 million bpd on average. The forecasts came as for the first time a COP global climate conference explicitly evoked a progressive reduction in the use of fossil fuels that are responsible for global warming. COP28 calls for a “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.” The agreement comes eight years after the Paris accord which set the target of keeping the increase in global temperatures at 1.5C and as the world set the hottest year on record.