The price of oil was above $93 a barrel Wednesday as a forecast for higher demand this year from aluminum giant Alcoa was weighed against a report of rising U.S. crude supplies.

The benchmark oil for February delivery was ahead 39 cents to $93.54 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The previous day, the contract fell four cents to finish at $93.15 a barrel.

Demand for aluminum has been hurt by the weak global economy, but Alcoa predicted a 7 per cent increase in demand this year, slightly better than the 6 per cent increase in 2012. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings were in line with forecasts while revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations.

“The outlook for global commodities is likely to remain uncertain in the next twelve months with low growth hampering demand especially in Europe,” Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said in an email commentary.

The American Petroleum Institute trade group said Tuesday that U.S. crude supplies grew by 2.4 million barrels last week, while gasoline stocks increased by 7.9 million barrels.

Those figures were much higher than the expectations of analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos, who forecast a rise of 1.5 million barrels for crude oil and an increase of 2.6 million barrels in gasoline stocks.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration releases its crude inventories report — the market benchmark — later Wednesday.