* IMF set for sharp cuts in global growth forecasts
* Reuters poll shows global demand to fall sharply in 2009
* Focus on bearish demand; U.S. crude stocks seen up
* February contract expires up 6 percent on short-covering
(Recasts, updates prices, market activity; new dateline,
previously LONDON)
NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Oil hovered around $41 a
barrel on Wednesday, as further evidence emerged that a
deepening global slowdown is crushing demand for fuel.
U.S. light crude for March delivery <CLc1> was 64 cents
higher at $41.48 a barrel by 12:03 p.m. EST (1706 GMT) on its
first day as the front month contract.
The February contract, which expired on Tuesday, settled up
$2.23, or about 6 percent, at $38.74 a barrel.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 5 cents to $43.67 a
barrel.
"We're consolidating a little bit after yesterday's late
bounce on the February contract expiry," said Andrey
Kryuchenkov, vice president commodities research at VTB Capital
in London.
"Sentiment continues to be very bearish as strong demand
just doesn't look like it is emerging in the current climate."
The International Monetary Fund is set to sharply cut
growth forecasts this month and the world will not return to
strong growth for two to three years, IMF Managing-Director
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday.
FALLING DEMAND
A Reuters poll on Wednesday showed 10 analysts, banks and
industry groups expected global oil demand to contract more
sharply in 2009 than they had forecast previously, as the
economic crisis spreads to the developing world.
World oil demand was predicted to fall by 430,000 barrels
per day (bpd) in 2009 to 85.43 million bpd, with demand growth
in emerging economies falling by more than half compared to
2008.
China, one engine in the six-year commodity price rally
that started in 2002, was expected to release fourth-quarter
GDP data this week that economists say will show 7.0 percent
growth, the slowest pace of expansion in nearly a decade for
the world's third-biggest economy.
Oil has plunged from record highs above $147 a barrel in
July as oil consumption has dropped, prompting the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree to a
series of output cuts.
OPEC is fully enforcing its deepest ever oil supply curbs,
which should be enough to boost prices, the group's president,
Angolan oil minister Botelho de Vasconcelos, told Reuters.
But prices remain at levels not seen since 2004.
Another Reuters poll of analysts forecast that crude oil
stocks in the United States, the world's top energy consumer,
rose by 1.4 million barrels last week, with distillate stocks
seen down 1.4 million barrels due to cold winter weather.
Gasoline stocks are expected to be up 2.1 million barrels,
up 5.1 million barrels from a year ago.
Data will be released on Thursday, a day later than usual,
following the U.S. holiday on Monday honoring civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr.
(Additional reporting by David Sheppard in London; Maryelle
Demongeot in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio)
