IEA - Global Q4 Demand For Oil "Exceptionally Strong" Even W/O Cold Winter - Reuters

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LONDON (Reuters) - Surging demand and lower OPEC production may start to deflate world fuel stockpiles that have been filling at the fastest rate in 15 years, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.

The rebound in consumption will come after fuel use grew less quickly than expected in the first nine months of the year, prompting the Paris-based agency to cut its 2006 global demand growth forecast by 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 900,000 bpd. The outlook for world demand growth next year was steady at 1.45 million bpd to 85.9 million bpd, with China driving the expansion.

"Demand growth in the fourth quarter is expected to be exceptionally strong," said Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets division. "And that is not even allowing for a cold winter. If we see a cold winter it will be even stronger."

Stocks have begun to decline, but it would take severe weather to make a dent in OECD inventories that rose by 1.15 million bpd in the third quarter, the biggest rise since 1991, the energy advisor to 26 industrialized nations said.

EDIT

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/061110/energy_iea_forecast.html?.v=2