LONDON (ShareCast) - Oil moved to $72 a barrel today after the International Energy Agency raised its demand forecast for the first time in almost a year.
World crude demand in 2009 will contract by 2.47m barrels per day (bpd) to 83.3m bpd.
The group's previous forecast was for demand to contract by 2.56m bpd.
"These revisions do not necessarily imply the beginnings of a global economic recovery, and may only signal the bottoming out of the recession," the IEA, which advises 28 industrialised countries, said in its monthly Oil Market Report.
The agency said the upward adjustment was made because of stronger-than-expected demand earlier in the year from developed countries.
US light crude for July is up 69 cents to $72.02 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Yesterday, crude surged ahead after the Energy Information Administration said crude stocks fell by 4.4m barrels in the week ended 5 June. Analysts had expected an increase of around 800,000 barrels.
The data follows a report earlier in the week from the American Petroleum Institute which said US crude supplies slumped by 6m barrels last week.
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