The International Energy Agency predicted Tuesday that global demands for crude oil would continue to increase this year by about 1.8 percent.

Daily oil demands in 2007 would grow to 86 million barrels from the estimated 84.5 million barrels of 2006, the agency said in its monthly oil market report.

The estimated demands were close to the 85.46 million barrels per day projected last month by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

As prices for crude hovered at high levels, the oil demands of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries dropped last year, which, however, could not be considered a tendency in those countries, it said, adding that non-OECD countries would see a growth of 3.2 percent in oil demand this year.

The report calculated that OPEC oil output would inch up to 30.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2007, from 30.3 million bpd in 2006.

Source: Xinhua