The International Energy Agency (IEA) is ratcheting up its concern about peaking world oil supplies that could trigger price hikes. In its annual energy outlook released this week, the agency warns that it cannot rule out a "supply-side crunch" in world oil markets by 2015 as flagging oil production struggles to keep up with soaring demand. Major agencies such as IEA have usually assumed that Middle East oil producers would make up the shortfall between sagging global production and rising demand, says Boston University economist Robert Kaufmann. Now IEA projects even faster demand growth than it did last year.
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