Research Pit

[Jagman]

On Tuesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecast that world oil demand in 2006 would increase by 1.79 million barrels a day -- a 2.2 percent increase from 2005.

The bulk of the increase is expected in the second half of the year, with the U.S. showing the sharpest increases, the IEA said.

According to the IEA's new medium-term projections, global oil demand is expected to grow each year by 1.8 million to 2 million barrels a day through 2010 as China and India continue to expand.

With the world's appetite for crude on the rise, the global buffer of spare oil has rapidly reduced and is partly blamed for the crude price spikes that began last year.

This has at least one forecast predicting a "super-spike" in prices.

"Resilient energy demand, lackluster supply growth, and nonexistent spare capacity continue to underpin our view that we are in the early stages of a multiyear 'super spike' phase," said Goldman Sachs in its latest energy review.

This year could be the first year of that phase, Goldman Sachs said, which could last five years.

Rest of the story....

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051214/oil_prices.html?.v=3