Robust Demand Tightening Oil Market, IEA Says

Output in Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, fell by 60,000 bpd in January to 9.76 million bpd, the IEA said.

Halff said demand for OPEC crude oil could be even stronger in the coming months as companies moved to rebuild oil inventories to a more comfortable level.

The IEA kept its estimate for supply growth from countries outside of OPEC unchanged from last month, forecasting an increase of 1.7 million bpd this year.

"We're going into a period of lower demand as refineries start maintenance after the winter," Halff said.

"We need to rebuild stocks."

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices were down about 0.5 percent on Thursday at $108.24 a barrel, slipping after hitting a month-high of $109.75 at the start of the week.

(Reporting by Christopher Johnson and David Sheppard; editing by Jason Neely)


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