business & finance club - dubai: IEA RAISES GROWTH FORECAST FOR OIL DEMAND IN 2010: The International Energy Agency has said that global oil demand will rise by 1.67 million barrels per day in 2010 to meet rising demand that is expected to reach 86.60 million bpd this year, up from 84.93 million in 2009, Reuters has reported. The IEA estimated demand this year for OPEC crude and stocks would fall by 200,000 bpd to 29.1 million bpd. It said production by the OPEC member states rose by 30,000 bpd, taking their compliance as a group with promised output cuts to around 55 percent at the end of March, down from its previous estimate of 56 percent at the end of February.

CONOCO AND MUBADALA TO BID FOR CASPIAN OIL: ConocoPhillips and Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development plan to jointly bid for oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan, Bloomberg has reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The two firms won access to Block N in Kazakhstan's sector of the Caspian in 2008 and plan to drill an exploration well in the third quarter.