Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency cut its global oil demand forecast for 2009 because of the world economic slowdown.

The Paris-based agency reduced its demand forecast by 170,000 barrels a day from its November estimate to 86.37 million barrels a day, analyst David Martin said in a phone interview today as the agency issued an update to its July’s Medium-Term Oil Market report.

The forecast for 2013 demand has been lowered by 2.9 million barrels a day to 91.25 million barrels a day from a July estimate of 94.14 million barrels a day, Martin said.

Consumers have cut spending amid a global economic downturn, reducing demand for fuels such as gasoline, and naphtha, used in plastics, clothing, and toys.

The IEA has removed Kuwait Petroleum Corp’s fourth refinery at Al-Zour and Saudi Arabia’s Jubail facility from its forecast of world refinery capacity in 2013 as lower demand delays projects. That cuts 825,000 barrels a day from refinery capacity in 2013, now forecast to rise 7.98 million barrels a day in the next five years.

These large-scale projects “can no longer realistically be completed within the time frame,” the IEA said.

The IEA’s forecast for 2008 demand has been reduced by 40,000 barrels a day from last month’s report, Martin said. Gasoline and naphtha demand will remain weak while growth is biased toward diesel, the IEA said today in the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 5, 2008 07:27 EST