IEA sees growth in crude oil demand in 2008 despite OPEC forecasts

Crude oil demand growth will jump by 2.1m barrels a day in 2008 as strong Middle East consumption will offset the US economic slowdown and the impact of record prices, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.

Photo: IEA sees growth in crude oil demand in 2008 despite OPEC forecasts

The International Energy Agency is a Paris-based intergovernmental organization founded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the oil crisis. The IEA is dedicated to preventing disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as acting as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.

They have a secondary role in promoting and developing alternate energy sources, rational energy policies, and multinational energy technology co-operation. Until recently, it did not study nuclear power in detail, except as a contribution to the overall energy balance and economy.

Opec last week in a meeting in Abu Dhabi rejected an official increase in its production ceiling warning that demand could be lower than forecast because the impact of the credit squeeze.

OPEC) is a large group of countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Ecuador (which rejoined OPEC in November 2007) . The Vienna-based organization has maintained its headquarters there since 1965, hosting regular meetings between the oil ministers of its member states.

The principal aim of the organization, according to its Statute, is the determination of the best means for safeguarding their interests, individually and collectively; devising ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; giving due regard at all times to the interests of the producing nations and to the necessity of securing a steady income to the producing countries; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations, and a fair return on their capital to those investing in the petroleum industry.

Source: agencies