Oil Demand Will Grow, Despite Prices, Report Says

HOUSTON

The Paris-based agency, which advises governments of the industrialized countries, predicted that oil consumption would decline slightly in the United States and other developed countries over the next couple of years. Americans, the report said, are beginning to drive more fuel-efficient vehicles and taking mass transit when it is available.

But the small decline in oil demand in the industrialized countries will be more than offset by an estimated increase in demand of 3.7 percent a year from 2008 to 2013 in developing countries, particularly in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.