The Opec oil cartel's resolve to cut production to boost prices is fraying, says the International Energy Agency, the developed countries' watchdog.
The cartel, which produces more than a third of the world's oil, last month raised its output by 270,000 barrels a day, ending a seven-month run of ever steeper cutbacks, the IEA said. The move is important because the rise in production together with weak global oil demand could increase inventories and depress prices.
The IEA yesterday revised downward its demand outlook for 2009. This year demand would contract by 2.56m barrels a day, the sharpest annual fall since 1981. That is a drop of 160,000 barrels a day on the figure the IEA had expected in the report it published last month.