NEW YORK, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices were mixed on Thursday, as OPEC lowered global oil demand for 2019 and forecast strong non-OPEC oil supply growth this year in its latest monthly oil report.
For 2019, world oil demand is forecast to grow by 1.24 million barrels per day (mb/d), which is lower than the estimated 1.43 mb/d growth in 2018, according to OPEC's March oil report released on Thursday.
Non-OPEC oil supply growth in 2019 was revised up by 0.06 mb/d to reach 2.24 mb/d. The United States, Brazil, Russia, the UK and Australia are the main drivers.
"While oil demand is expected to grow at a moderate pace in 2019, it is still well below the strong growth expected in the non-OPEC supply forecast for this year," OPEC said in the report.
"This highlights the continued shared responsibility of all participating producing countries to avoid a relapse of the imbalance and continue to support oil market stability in 2019," the oil cartel noted.
The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery rose 0.35 U.S. dollar to settle at 58.61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery decreased 0.32 dollar to close at 67.23 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
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