MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Oil demand, and prices, forecasted to keep increasing

Global demand for oil will increase significantly next year, with greater pressure on prices, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its monthly report.

According to IEA, demand would rise by an average of 2.2 million barrels a day next year, up from 1.5 million in 2007. Oil prices in recent weeks have surged to over 76 US dollars a barrel on supply worries and violence in oil-rich Nigeria. IEA which advises industrialized nations on energy issues said higher demand next year would require OPEC members to supply an estimated 600.000 barrels more per day. However IEA believes OPEC estimated output of 35.4 million barrels a day in 2008 - an increase of one million on this year - will comfortably cover demand of up to 32.3 million barrels a day. "Overall, both in terms of spare upstream capacity and refinery flexibility, 2008 looks at this stage to be slightly more comfortable than 2006 and 2007," the IEA report said. IA recently forecast that demand would rise by an average of 2.2% a year until 2012, raising fresh concerns about whether supply would be able to keep pace Meantime from Nicaragua Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez predicted that the war in Iraq could push oil prices to a record 100 US dollars a barrel "very soon". Chavez was in Nicaragua for the inauguration of a 150,000-barrel-a-day refinery which Venezuela helped to finance. Chavez said the 2.5 billion US dollars refinery will allow Nicaragua ? the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere ? to earn 700 million dollars annually. "I have come to deepen ties with the Nicaraguan people through their government," said Chavez, who a day earlier celebrated the 28th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution with his ally, President Daniel Ortega. Venezuela is building new refineries in politically aligned countries such as Nicaragua, Cuba and Brazil to ease the country's reliance on the United States ? its main market for oil.