OPEC revises up 2010 world oil demand

CAIRO: OPEC has revised up slightly its forecast oil demand for next year, as the group heads into a meeting in Angola next week where it is likely to leave members' quotas unchanged.

The 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a monthly report Tuesday that world oil demand was expected to increase 800,000 barrels per day. That's a 70,000 barrel per day upward revision from its November forecast.

However, the group which supplies about 35 percent of the world's oil cautioned that the pace of the global economic recovery could still impact oil demand in 2010.

OPEC is meeting in the Angolan capital on December 22. Ministers from a number of its top producers have voiced satisfaction with current oil prices even as global oil supplies remain high.