The CEO of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, has predicted that oil demand from major exporters such as India and China will remain strong for the rest of 2023, despite a global downturn.

“Overall, we believe that oil market fundamentals remain generally sound for the rest of the year,” said Amin Nasser, speaking at the Energy Asia conference in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

“Despite the recession risks in several OECD countries, the economies of developing countries – especially China and India – are driving healthy oil demand growth of more than two million barrels per day this year,” he went on.

His comments came despite China showing signs of stalling growth. Earlier this month, top investment banks including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan announced cuts to their full-year gross domestic product estimates for China.

“Although China is facing some economic headwinds, the transport and petrochemical sectors are still showing signs of demand growth,” Nasser said.

The International Energy Agency also expects oil demand to grow by two million barrels per day in 2023. This is despite shocks to the market earlier this year following the announcement of production cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The Energy Asia conference brings together industry leaders from across the continent to talk about Asia’s net-zero ambitions. Nasser called for greater recognition of the role that the region is playing in the energy transition.

“When it comes to the energy transition, I do not believe the interests of this dynamic region are being adequately reflected in the popular energy transition narrative and current transition policies,” he said.

Three of the five largest economies are expected to be Asian by 2050, Nasser noted, and therefore “Asia’s priorities should be better reflected in the global energy transition debate”.