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Oil Prices Rise as IEA Lifts Demand Forecast | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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NEW YORK, (AFP) – Oil prices rose Friday after the forecast for global oil demand for this year was raised and following the closure of a key pipeline carrying crude to the United States.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October jumped 2.20 dollars to 76.45 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for October delivery climbed 69 cents to 78.16 dollars.

The International Energy Agency on Friday raised its overall forecast for 2010 by 50,000 barrels a day — reflecting mainly higher-than-expected demand in North America and advanced countries in Asia.

Those increases more than offset a lowering of forecast overall demand from non-OECD countries and notably the Middle East and Asia, by 30,000 barrels a day.

Demand in China will continue to grow strongly, but at a sharply slower pace, the IEA said.

The closure of a major pipeline taking Canadian crude into the US mid-West following a reported leak further pushed prices up, said David Hufton, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates.

The pipeline, operated by Canadian oil company Enbridge, provides 670,000 barrels per day or one third of Canada’s oil exports to the United States.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) in a report on Thursday said crude stocks last week dropped by a modest 1.9 million barrels from the previous week.

But the private American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Wednesday that stocks had plunged 7.3 million barrels over the same period.