NAGOYA: The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference in Nagoya, Japan.

He is not worried about Saudi Arabia potentially cutting oil exports in retaliation to growing international calls on Riyadh to account for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month.

Global oil demand growth is still very strong, driven by several emerging countries in Asia.

Against the background of "a free fall of production from Venezuela" and Iranian exports, which may fall further, "there is a potential for seeing even higher prices than current ones and it's a challenge for key producers to increase oil output and comfort the markets."

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; editing by Richard Pullin) ((osamu.tsukimori@thomsonreuters.com, +813 6441 1857, Reuters Messaging: osamu.tsukimori.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;))