The oil market will remain oversupplied until the end of the decade as the push for cleaner fuels and greater efficiency offsets the effect of lower prices, the world’s leading energy forecaster said. In its annual outlook, the International Energy Agency said oil demand would rise by less than 1 per cent a year between now and 2020, slower than necessary to quickly mop up an oil glut that has driven prices to multiyear lows. The slowdown in oil demand growth follows a near 15-year surge in consumption, driven by the rapid industrialisation of China and other emerging market economies. But Beijing is now moving away from dirtier fuels and to less energy-intensive growth as it heads towards a more consumer-led economy. “We are approaching the end of the single largest demand growth story in energy history,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told the Financial Times. Mr Birol was appointed IEA head in September after 20 years with the west’s energy watchdog. “Demand is not as strong as we have seen in the past as a result of efficiency [and climate] policies [globally],” he added, saying the growth in renewables will further restrict demand for oil.