Record oil supply, price to weigh on recovery: EIA (by Claudia Assis)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The world's supply of crude oil rose to a record 89 million barrels a day in February, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday in its monthly outlook. Output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fell slightly as loss of Libyan supply was partly offset by higher production from Persian Gulf states, but non-OPEC supply rose on more Alaskan and Canadian output. The agency also warned that "if prices remain at current levels or rise further, by September 2011 - if not before - the global economy may feature a marked slowdown." That would "coincide with expected fiscal tightening (and possibly monetary as well, if inflationary expectations become entrenched) in the world's largest economies," the IEA added. Oil prices slid Tuesday as the nuclear crisis in post-earthquake Japan deepened; the April contract (clj11) was off $3.72, or 3.7%, to $97.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.