Weakness can be overstated. Forecasters have applied their own downgrades to global oil demand growth less than a week after ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its assessment of US creditworthiness. Demand growth for this year was not triple-A rated before the latest IEA, EIA and Opec reports, but neither was it negligible. It also follows rapid growth of more than 2.75mn b/d in 2010 that ate into spare capacity and drew down global inventories by 400,000 b/d. The oil market is still operating under supply constraints that leave it looking tight until at least the end of the year.
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