IEA: Demand for Oil Increases

As if taking a cue from T-Rex Tillerson that demand for oil will keep rising, the International Energy Agency has raised its outlook for world oil demand for the first time over a year, citing upward revisions to the estimated appetite of the still-booming Chinese economy.

The IEA raised its 2007 demand forecast by 273,000 barrels a day, to an average of 86 million b/d.

It also adjusted its 2006 demand estimate upward by 111,000 b/d to 84.5 million b/d. It said that despite a milder-than-normal start to the winter, fourth-quarter world demand was up 1.3 million b/d from a year earlier.

The agency said global demand grew an estimated 1 per cent in 2006, and is forecast to rise 1.8 per cent in 2007, up from the previous forecast of 1.6 per cent. It said demand from OECD countries actually fell by an estimated 0.8 per cent last year, the first significant decline since 1985, but non-OECD demand surged an estimated 3.6 per cent in 2006.

So T-Rex might be right about somethings….