[12/March/2010]

PARIS, March 12 (Saba) -- The International Energy Agency raised its 2010 oil demand forecast to 86.6 million barrels per day due to higher expectations from non-OECD regions, the organization said Friday, according to Xinhua.

With increasing oil demand from non-OECD countries that is predicted to average 41.2 million bpd in 2010, global demand has been revised upward by 70,000 bdp for both 2009 and 2010, offseting a lower consumption in OECD countries.

The agency raised its 2009 estimation in its latest monthly oil market report to 85 million bdp, 1.4 percent less than that of last year, while for 2010, the 86.6-million-bpd prediction is 1.8 percent higher or 1.6 million bpd more than the level of 2009.

With OPEC first reporting its yearly growth since October 2008, IEA posted a global oil supply to 86.6 million bpd in February, 0.9 million bpd higher than previous month.

For the oil supply outside OPEC, the output in 2009 posted a growth of 0.1 million bpd to 51.5 million bpd, indicating an annual growth of 750,000 bpd, the strongest since 2004, the IEA said.

Saba