Vienna - There is a risk that oil demand in the United States remains flat or falls this year, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Wednesday, citing uncertainty about economic recovery in the US. As the world's largest economy, the US plays a key role in oil markets, consuming nearly a quarter of global supplies. The Vienna-based oil cartel currently forecasts the country's oil demand to grow by 1 per cent in 2010, after declining by 0.8 million barrels per day (bpd) last year. One barrel equals 159 litres. 'It is expected that the recovery will strengthen in the second half of the year; however the risk is high that the country's oil demand would slide back further,' the report said. The main question is whether the government in Washington manages to stimulate the economy and fight unemployment, OPEC said, forecasting that gross domestic product would rise only 0.4 per cent in real terms above the pre-crisis level this year. The group's experts said that the country's strong economic growth in the fourth quarter was largely fuelled by inventories being restocked. OPEC kept its global annual demand outlook nearly stable at 85.12 million bpd, with most of the growth in volume coming from China, as well as countries in North America, the Middle East and Asia. On the supply side, the 11 members of the cartel that are bound by output quotas strayed slightly further from their limits again in January, based on increases by Angola and Venezuela. Iraq, the 12th member state, is not bound by a quota. Including Iraq, the group pumped 29.19 million bpd last month, which corresponds to a share of 34.1 per cent of global crude oil supplies. OPEC's basket price settled at 69.76 dollars per barrel on Monday, down from its 15-month high of 80.29 dollars in early January.

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