国际英语新闻：IEA: Global oil demand falls at fastest pace this year since 1981

PARIS, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Global oil consumption this year will sharply decline at fastest pace since 1981 due to the economic recession, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its monthly oil market report released on Thursday.

    IEA, the Paris-based organization for economic cooperation and development, expected 2009 was "the sharpest single year's fall since 1981," with the oil demand to fall 3 percent to 83.2 million barrels a day, 2.56 barrels a day less than in last year. It previously estimated demand to contract 2.4 million bpd this year.

    After IEA released its report, the price of a barrel of oil fell nearly 1 dollar to 57.02 dollars.

    IEA said it revised down the oil demand outlook because of "the weaker-than-expected preliminary data in various regions such as the U.S., China and Russia".

    The new forecast followed a lower demand outlook from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday. OPEC expected the consumption to fall by 1.57 million barrels a day this year to 84.03 million a day. Pumping more oil, the exporter group increased oil supplies in April for the first time since July as higher crude prices promoting members to backtrack on their output quotas.

    "Global crude runs would remain depressed compared to the five-year historical range due to the weaker demand," said the IEA.