Nobuo Tanaka, speaking to reporters at the CERA energy conference in Houston, also said that agency will slightly cut its forecast for world oil demand growth in 2008 in a new oil market report to be issued on Wednesday.
The IEA, which advises 27 industrialized nations on energy issues, said global oil supplies including OPEC need to hold production steady in order to build up sagging global crude oil inventories.
“We want to see more of a build in the second quarter,” Tanaka said. “Maintaining the current level of production is desirable.”
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed earlier this month to keep output unchanged, rebuffing calls from consumer countries for more supply to rein in oil prices near $ 90 a barrel.
But Gulf producer Kuwait said a supply rise would be discussed at the March 5 meeting, while Iran and Venezuela — typically price hawks — suggested a cut might be needed at the March 5 meeting.
Tanaka said most of the downward revision to the IEA’s 2008 global oil demand forecast, which is “not substantial,” is due to weakening economic growth in the United States and other industrialized nations.
“We are cautiously watching how the impact of the slowdown in the US is impacting other economies,” Tanaka said.
