LONDON, June 12: World oil prices fell on Tuesday as the market shrugged off forecasts of higher crude demand to concentrate on data that is expected to show an increase in stockpiles of US gasoline, analysts said.

Brent North Sea crude for July delivery lost 84 cents to $68.72 per barrel in electronic deals.

New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, shed 62 cents to $65.35 per barrel in US pit trading.

Prices had swung higher on Monday amid supply concerns, after a heavy sell-off on Friday which was triggered partly by fears that rising interest rates would crimp demand.

On Tuesday the International Energy Agency raised its prediction for global crude demand in 2007. The IEA predicted that global oil demand would increase by two percent this year, revising upwards an earlier estimate by some 400,000 bpd, owing partly to a big adjustment of previous demand data.

“Global oil product demand is revised up to... 86.1 million barrels per day for 2007,” the IEA said in a monthly market report.

“World demand is now estimated to rise by 2.0 per cent or 1.7 million barrels a day in 2007.”But traders appeared more interested by the weekly snapshot of American energy reserves, due for publication on Wednesday from the US Energy Information Administration.

Traders “are viewing Wednesday’s weekly EIA figures as more important than the IEA report,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.

Gasoline supplies remain in focus amid the current US driving season when demand for motor fuel traditionally peaks as American holidaymakers throng roads.

In its report, however, the IEA also warned that oil market supplies would be tight in the second half of this year, which risked pushing up prices.

“There are of course uncertainties which could shift the market,” the report added, citing geopolitical tensions, economic growth and prevailing weather conditions in key crude producing regions.

Nigeria is among oil-rich countries where violence is helping to provide price support.

But on Tuesday it was revealed that an armed group fighting for control of oil resources in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria had released 12 foreign workers kidnapped and held hostage by a series of different armed groups.—AFP