By Devika Krishna Kumar
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed on Thursday after a mixed report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said it was skeptical that an upcoming meeting of major producers would do much to tighten the supply demand balance.
The IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialized nations, trimmed its estimate for 2016 global demand growth from last month to 1.16 million barrels per day (bpd), but said a much-anticipated slide in production in the United States was gathering pace.
"If there is to be a production freeze, rather than a cut, the impact on physical oil supplies will be limited," the IEA said in its monthly report.
The market has been choppy ahead of a keenly anticipated producers' meeting on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, of the world's biggest oil exporters, including Saudi Arabia and Russia.
They are set to finalize a deal reached in February to freeze oil output at January levels, aiming to bolster oil prices. But many analysts think traders could be disappointed after the meeting.
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"I think the market is really looking ahead to Doha," said Michael Tran, director of energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
"An agreement to freeze production does little to change physical balances, but constructive rhetoric could serve as a sentiment changer at a minimum, helping to legitimize the current rally and have the market hold the $40 a barrel level as the new psychological floor."
Brent crude futures were up 17 cents at $44.35 a barrel by 10:52 a.m. EST (1452 GMT). U.S. crude was up 8 cents at $41.84.
Oil found support after U.S. economic data pushed the dollar to session lows. A weaker dollar is a plus for oil, making it more affordable to holders of other currencies.
In the previous session, oil fell after Russian oil minister Alexander Novak told a closed-door briefing of energy analysts in Moscow that a deal in Doha would be loosely framed with few detailed commitments.
"The agreement will not be very rigidly formulated, it is more of a gentlemen's agreement," one of those present said, paraphrasing Novak's words at the briefing.
"There is no plan to sign binding documents," another person at the briefing said.
(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Clarke, David Evans and Jeffrey Benkoe)