Robust Demand Tightening Oil Market, IEA Says

"Demand has been stronger than expected, and we're operating with low stock levels right now, which has been supportive for prices," Antoine Halff, head of the IEA's oil industry and markets division, told Reuters.

"Demand for OPEC crude looks stronger."

Both OPEC and the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised their forecasts for 2014 demand in monthly reports this week.

NO GLUT

Growing oil production in North America had led some to predict international crude prices would fall in 2014, after averaging around $110 a barrel in each of the past three years.

But robust demand and supply problems in a number of OPEC countries have kept prices supported, the IEA said.

While output from Libya recovered in January to 500,000 bpd, Iraqi output fell by 140,000 bpd to 2.99 million bpd, the IEA said, and warned that exports from Libya were likely to continue to be constrained by political unrest in the country.


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