Crude prices rise as IEA sees stronger demand

Oil prices gained Thursday as the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted solid growth of crude demand.

IEA Thursday revised global oil demand growth for the first quarter of 2016 upwards to 1.4 million barrels per day (mb/d), led by strong gains in India, China and, more surprisingly, Russia. For the year as a whole, the growth will be around 1.2 mb/d, with demand reaching 95.9 mb/d.

Oil market also gained as US crude stockpiles contracted unexpectedly.

U.S. crude supplies of last week lost 3.4 million barrels to 540 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s weekly report released Wednesday. Crude production of the country decreased 23,000 to 8.802 million barrels a day last week.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery moved up 47 cents to settle at 46.7 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery increased 48 cents to close at 48.08 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.