Oil Demand Strong Into 2020, Bank of America Analyst Blanch Says

Oil demand will remain strong through at least 2020, pushing spot costs for crude above futures pricing.

That’s the message from Francisco Blanch, Bank of America’s head of commodities and derivative research. Electric vehicles won’t start biting into oil demand until at least 2020,  he said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday. Blanch expects China to push electric vehicles in its quest for cleaner fuels, but said the technology still needs three to four years to make prices comparable with internal combustion engine vehicles.

China is “going to have a massive geopolitical exposure to global energy,” Blanch said. “They need to wean themselves off the foreign fuel dependency problem they have.”