Oil prices are expected to keep sliding well into 2015, held down by weak demand and increased shale production, the IEA said Friday, as it maintained its full-year forecast for slow global consumption growth.
Global crude futures slumped on Thursday to lows not seen since September 2010, with London's Brent for delivery in December diving well below the $80 mark.
Dealers however do not expect the 12-nation OPEC cartel, which is meeting on November 27 in Vienna, to cut output and thereby help shore up prices.
Some observers believe that OPEC might be rather seeking to maintain its foothold in the US market against the flood of oil being extracted domestically from shale rock -- which had in part caused the global glut.
The IEA said while there had been speculation that the high cost of shale extraction "might set a new equilibrium for Brent prices in the $80 to $90 range, supply/demand balances suggest that the price rout has yet to run its course."
"Our supply and demand forecasts indicate that barring any new supply disruption, downward price pressures could build further in the first half of 2015," it added.
Demand growth is meanwhile expected to remain at the five-year low rate of 680,000 barrels a day in 2014, reaching an estimated 92.4 million barrels a day, the IEA said.
"Relatively weak Chinese demand growth, coupled with large absolute declines in both European and OECD Asia Oceania, curb the upside momentum otherwise provided by gains in other non-OECD economies and the US," it said.
Accelerating global momentum is seen lifting demand growth, to reach 1.1 million barrels a day to 93.6 million barrels a day.