The savage Brent sell-off that began last week finally came to a halt Thursday as huge trading swells indicat- ed that most players had finished bailing out of their long positions. The resulting higher refinery margins in all regions, combined with generous Saudi term pricing for June loadings, should increase demand for crude oil, especially now that refineries are coming out of maintenance ahead of the summer peak-demand peri- od. Demand seems to be picking up. In its latest Monthly Oil Market Report, Opec projects global demand growth at 900,000 barrels per day this year, up a trickle from the 2012 gains it was forecasting in April, thanks to an appar- ently resilient US economy and Japan burning more oil to generate power now that all its nuclear power plants have been closed.
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