VIENNA: Global world oil demand is due to increase further next year thanks in part to resurgent growth in developed countries, OPEC said in its first forecast for 2015.

The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps a third of the world’s crude, predicted demand would top 92.35 million barrels per day (mbpd), up 1.33 percent from 2014.

The growth is due to a recovery in demand for the first time since 2010 among advanced economies in the OECD region, particularly in the US, OPEC said in its monthly report.

The bulk of the demand will come as per usual from non-OECD countries however, especially China and the Middle East.

Still, OPEC sounded a word of warning, saying that the development and use of alternative sources of fuel, could cut into its 2015 forecast.

Demand in advanced Asian economies, for example, was expected to drop as nuclear plants, shut down in the wake of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster, start up again.

For 2014, the 12-member oil group kept its demand forecast almost unchanged from June at 91.13 mbps.

Non-OPEC supply, the source of two in every three barrels, is expected to increase next year by 1.31 million bpd, more than demand, with the US leading the way.

OPEC expects US production to average 13.12 million bpd in 2015, up 880,000 bpd from 2014 and the highest increase of all non-OPEC countries. Still, it warned that a drop in oil prices — among other risks — could dampen the expansion.

OPEC’s report also indicates that the demand for its crude next year will fall further below its output target of 30 million bpd. At a meeting in June, OPEC agreed to retain the 30 million bpd target for the second half of 2014.

The price of oil continued to fall on Thursday, trading below $102 a barrel as the outlook for supply remained robust.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark US crude for August delivery was down 34 cents to $101.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down 12 cents to $108.16 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Oil has been falling steadily for more than a week partly because worries about disruptions of the oil supply from Iraq have subsided and Libyan oil is returning to the global market.