Five key takeaways from the big three oil market reports

Demand and supply data still diverge, Venezuela’s increasingly critical to balances, and some macro alarm bells are starting to ring

Opec, the International Energy Agency and the Energy Information Administration simply don't agree on the state of the oil market's balance. Tight oil's recent surge has thrown a spanner in all their works. But some nuggets in the data are worth drawing out—they might be decisive over the coming months. 1. Demand is strong, but the agencies don't agree how strong…The IEA upped its forecast for 2018 a bit, to 1.5m barrels a day, a reflection of strong macro-economic data. Opec increased its forecast slightly to 1.6m b/d. Among these three, the EIA is most bullish, expecting 1.8m b/d of growth. What's startling in the detail, though, is when they think consumption will happen. Both Opec and th