As the weather gets milder in the North East USA, crude oil futures prices dipped towards US$45/barrel. Another factor contributing significantly to the slide is building consensus of OPEC's acceptance of lower oil prices. During the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, several representatives from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said that the cartel would not cut output unless prices fell to about US$37 a barrel. The benchmark light, sweet crude fell to US$45.20/barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude slid to US$43.25 on the International Petroleum Exchange. Prices on Tuesday were at their lowest since early January and more than US$10 below their all-time closing high of $55.17 (late October).
Demand for crude from China represents an increase of almost a half-million bpd from the beginning of 2004. Chinese demand for oil will have grown 22% in just two years. Long term outlook for crude oil demand is still bullish, with rising demand from India and China keeping supplies tight, triggered by possibility of a disruption to Middle East supplies.
09-Feb-05 
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