Equity markets rising to 11-month highs, although they later pulled back, and a fall in US crude oil inventories helped oil rally for the fourth day running.
US crude rose 45 cents to $71.76 a barrel by 1130 GMT. London Brent crude rose 28 cents to $70.11. "The big change in the IEA report was that they made a pretty big upward revision for demand," Mike Wittner, Societe Generale's global head of oil market research, said. But Wittner said the price rises were limited ahead of the release of the US government weekly oil data later on Thursday.
Global oil demand will be almost half a million barrels per day higher than previously forecast this year and next on stronger-than-expected US and Asian fuel consumption, the International Energy Agency said in its oil market report on Thursday. "The year-on-year decline will diminish as we go through the end of 2009, and then from early 2010, we will begin to see year-on-year growth in global demand," David Fyfe, head of the IEA's oil industry and market division, said. The IEA report followed US oil industry data on Wednesday showing a significant fall in crude oil inventories.
