Brent crude for August delivery settled at $51.44/bbl on the London market. It was the highest price for front-month Brent since Oct. 9, 2015.

Policymakers must find new ways to promote private sector development and help their economies diversify away from oil.

In 2015 global demand for primary energy grew by only 1%, significantly slower than the 10-year average. This reflected continued weakness in the global economy and lower growth in Chinese energy consumption as the country shifts from an industrial to a service-driven economy.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to average $43/b in 2016 and $52/b in 2017, $3/b and $1/b higher than forecast in last month's STEO, respectively. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to be slightly lower than Brent in 2016 and to be the same as Brent in 2017.

London Brent crude for August delivery was up 9 cents at $51.53 a barrel by 0451 GMT, after settling up 89 cents on Tuesday. It earlier touched $51.55, the highest since Oct. 12.

Gas demand growth in the Asian nation, which is transforming into a consumer-driven economy, decelerated to about 4 per cent last year — the slowest pace since 1998 — compared with an average growth rate of 15 per cent between 2009 and 2014.

This arguably should have benefited the U.S. economy because lower gasoline prices aid consumers by lowering their fixed expenses. But the pain of investment losses largely outweighed the positive effects as investors from Main Street to pensions and foundations lent piles of money to speculative energy companies that looked increasingly fragile.

The global benchmark, Brent, gained 1.15% to reach $50.21 a barrel. Its U.S. counterpart, West Texas Intermediate, was trading up 1.13% at $49.17 a barrel.

Prices need to be at level above $50 a barrel for more crude supplies to come back to the market following a slump over the past two years, Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, told reporters in his suite in a Vienna hotel.

"The fact that OPEC agreed on its new management shows they want to regain their coordinating role. The cartel will perform market management again," Alekperov, chief executive of Russian energy firm Lukoil, said after meeting Falih and Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh separately in Vienna.