Fast-growing nations to spur oil demand in 2011: IEA

The world oil demand next year will be fueled by economic growth in fast growing countries like China and India, despite a drop in rich countries' appetite for oil, International Energy Agency has said.

The Paris-based agency in its monthly report on the oil markets estimated the global oil demand in 2011 to rise by a daily 1.3 million barrels or 1.6 percent, to average 87.8 million a day.

"Non-OECD Asia, the Middle East and Latin America will continue to command the lion's share of oil demand growth in 2011," it said in the report.

The forecast for world oil consumption this year was unchanged, at 86.5 million barrels a day, a 2.1 percent increase from 2009.

The energy arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of the world's richest nations, said the rich countries were seeking fuel efficiency and their oil demand next year, irrespective of the growth in the global economy, will decline by 0.5 percent against the levels this year.

The agency also said the development of Iran's oil and gas industry will be hit in the longer term by tighter sanctions from the United Nations, United States and EU.

It also anticipated delays in new oil projects, following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that has dented a loss of 30,000 barrels per day in the 2010 and 2011 US crude production. Further cuts could come if wide-reaching drilling restrictions arise from the disaster inquiry, the agency said.

Last Monday BP robots attached a new, tighter-fitting cap on the top of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, raising hopes of effectively staunching the oil flow for the first time in nearly three months.

The Obama administration has issued a revised moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling to replace the one that was struck down by the courts.