Oil demand seen dropping at fastest pace since ‘81

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Oil consumption will this year fall at the sharpest pace since 1981 due to the crisis afflicting world economies, the International Energy Agency said today as it made new cuts to its forecast for crude demand.

In its closely watched monthly survey, the Paris-based agency said it now expects global oil demand to fall 3 percent to 83.2 million barrels a day this year, or 2.6 million barrels a day less than in 2008.

That is the ninth consecutive monthly cut the IEA has made to its oil demand forecast since last August, when the IEA had forecast oil demand would reach 87.8 million barrels a day in 2009.