NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices fell on Wednesday as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) modestly trimmed its world oil demand growth forecast for 2021.

The West Texas Intermediate for November delivery lost 20 cents to settle at 80.44 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for December delivery decreased 24 cents to close at 83.18 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

OPEC trimmed its forecast for 2021 demand growth to 5.8 million barrels a day, down from its previous projection of 5.96 million barrels a day, its monthly report showed on Wednesday.

The downward revision is mainly driven by lower-than-expected actual data for the first three quarters of this year, despite healthy oil demand assumptions going into the final quarter of the year, which will be supported by seasonal uptick in petrochemical and heating fuel demand and the potential switch from natural gas to petroleum products due to high gas prices, said the report.

Meanwhile, traders await official U.S. fuel inventory report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) slated for Thursday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA publications to show a fall of 500,000 barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles for the week ending Oct. 8. Enditem

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