Record oil prices put brake on demand growth-IEA

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) The International Energy Agency on Tuesday sharply reduced its forecast for oil demand growth through the rest of 2007 and into 2008 saying oil's march towards 0 was already slowing consumption.

The adviser to 26 industrialised consumer nations cut its prediction for fourth quarter demand growth by 570,000 barrels per day (bpd) and by 180,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2008.

That will cut the need for OPEC crude by up to 700,000 bpd in the fourth quarter of this year and up to 300,000 bpd in the first three months of next year, the Paris-based agency said in its monthly Oil Market Report.

''...the recent dramatic price rise is having a 'short-term' shock effect, at the same time as consumers appear to be adapting behaviour to deal with steady annual price increases,'' the report said.

The IEA had already made deep downward revisions to its demand forecast in its October report. In total, the IEA has slashed projected fourth quarter demand growth by nearly 900,000 bpd and cut growth in the first quarter by more than 200,000 bpd.

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