Oil was mixed in Asia today as the International Energy Agency’s lower forecast for growth in world energy demand weighed on the market.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, dropped 19 cents to $93.32 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for May delivery gained nine cents to $104.36 in mid-morning trade.
“A lowered IEA forecast is definitely having an impact on oil prices,” Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG Markets Singapore, told AFP.
“The market is very sensitive to any type of announcement nowadays, with traders being geared onto data.”
The Paris-based IEA yesterday projected that global oil demand would grow by 795,000 barrels per day to a total of 90.6 million barrels a day in 2013.
This is slightly lower than its previous outlook, as a decline in European demand partially offset growth elsewhere, the agency said.
The IEA report was published one day after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries also lowered its forecast.