Oil rises above $97 per barrel

There is some disagreement on just how much the oil the world economy needs. On Wednesday the Paris-based International Energy Agency lowered its consumption forecast by 85,000 barrels a day compared with data from a month ago. On Tuesday OPEC raised its 2013 forecast for global demand, citing signs of recovery in the global economy.

The IEA expects the world to use 90.7 million barrels of crude oil a day this year. That is 1 million barrels a day more than OPEC's estimate of 89.7 million barrels a day.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline rose 8 cents to end at $3.12 a gallon.

— Heating oil up about half a cent to finish at $3.22 a gallon.

Pablo Gorondi contributed to this report from Budapest. Follow Jonathan Fahey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey .