IEA cuts 2006 global oil demand forecast due to price

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) Global oil demand growth will reach 1.49 million barrels per day in 2006, down from the previous forecast of 1.78 million bpd, as high oil prices erode demand, especially in southeast Asia, the IEA said on Tuesday.

The revised forecast for this year is still above last year's level of 1.02 million bpd, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report.

At the same time, overall supplies are increasing slightly.

In February, world oil supply rose to 84.6 million bpd, up by 490,000 bpd from a revised January figure, despite outages in OPEC producer Nigeria.

OPEC supply reached 29.6 million bpd in February, up by 220,000 bpd from a revised January figure.

The IEA is now including Venezuelan heavy Orinoco crude in its OPEC total, but it said that on an underlying basis the requirement for the producer group's crude was flat at 29 million bpd in 2006.

Non-OPEC supply growth for 2006 was cut by 155,000 bpd compared with the previous month's report to 51.3 million bpd.

REUTERS SR PM1854