* IEA predicts 2009 oil demand growth after 2008 contraction
* Saudi Nov oil output complies with OPEC target-oil min
* OPEC should make more severe output cut-president
(Updates prices)
By Alex Lawler
LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Oil rose above $46 on Thursday
after the International Energy Agency predicted global growth in
oil demand would resume in 2009 and the Saudi oil minister said
OPEC's top exporter pumped less oil than expected last month.
World oil demand growth would return in 2009 after shrinking
this year for the first time since 1983, the IEA, which advises
28 industrialised nations on energy policy, said in a monthly
report. It also cut forecasts for supply outside OPEC next year.
[]
"We knew the bad bits, demand down, but the supply downgrade
was supportive," said Rob Laughlin of MF Global.
U.S. crude <CLc1> was up $2.83 at $46.35 a barrel by 1554
GMT, after surging $1.45 to settle at $43.52 on Wednesday.
European benchmark Brent crude <LCOc1> was up $2.93 at $45.33.
Oil also rose as the U.S. dollar weakened after data on
weekly U.S. jobless claims came in worse than expected.
[] A weak dollar can boost investor demand for oil and
other dollar denominated commodities.
The IEA's view that demand would grow in 2009 contrasts with
that of the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration,
which forecast this week that consumption would fall by 450,000
barrels per day (bpd) next year.
The Paris-based IEA also lowered forecasts for supply from
outside OPEC in 2009, leading to a 200,000 bpd increase in the
amount it said OPEC needs to pump to balance the market.
SAUDI OUTPUT
Also boosting prices, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said
the world's largest exporter pumped 8.49 million bpd of oil in
November, less than estimated by analysts and in line with its
OPEC target.
"We will give you the November number because that's what
everybody is looking for," Naimi said during a visit to Poznan,
Poland. "It's 8,493,300 barrels per day."
That would put the kingdom's output in line with its implied
OPEC target of 8.47 million bpd and is 560,000 bpd less than the
IEA's estimate of Saudi November production, published earlier
on Thursday, of 9.05 million bpd.
Industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday they expected
January shipments to be below Saudi's existing OPEC target,
implying it expects OPEC to agree a further supply cut when the
producer group meets in Algeria on Dec. 17.
OPEC's president raised expectations that a large cut in
supplies is coming.
The group should agree a more "severe" reduction in output
at the meeting next week in Algeria, OPEC President Chakib
Khelil said in remarks published on Thursday, which made no
mention of a figure. []
Russia, which will attend the Algeria meeting as an observer
amid calls from some members for Moscow to join in output curbs,
said on Wednesday it will present its own proposal at the talks.
Oil has fallen by more than $100 a barrel from a record high
of $147.27 reached in the summer.
(Reporting by Alex Lawler in London, Anna Mudeva in Poznan and
Jennifer Tan in Singapore; Editing by Peg Mackey and Sue Thomas)
