The industrialized world's energy watchdog added to rising concerns in some quarters that oil and natural gas production won't keep up with the world's growing thirst for energy in coming years, highlighting worries over supplies and prices.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which monitors energy markets on behalf of the world's 26 most-advanced economies, yesterday released its annual medium-term forecast, projecting conditions through 2012. The agency expects oil supply to be tighter in coming years than it had forecast, with little prospect of relief unless world economic growth falters.

The IEA doesn't forecast oil prices, but its conclusions imply that consumers should expect continued upward pressure on the cost of energy.