FX.co ★ High prices for oil bring the volume of its consumption down

High global prices for oil started to have negative impact upon the volume of hydrocarbon consumed. It was announced by AFP with a reference to the monthly report on the oil market conditions provided by IEA.
As the Wall Street Journal informs, according to the IEA data in February 2011 growth of demand for oil slowed down on year basis down to 2.9% as compared to last December 4.8%. Meanwhile, IEA has not made any changes to the forecast regarding oil for the current year. The calculations of the organization show that demand for oil will constitute 89.4 mln. barrels per day which is 1.6% more than in 2010.
At the beginning of London trades on April 12 the cost of a Brent oil barrel was equal to 124.45 US dollars, while that of WTI – 109.81 US dollar. After the IEA report oil prices began to decline, a barrel of Brent oil grew cheaper and constituted 123.66 US dollars and that of WTI – 108.62 US dollars.
A spike of global oil prices last months was driven by political conflicts in the Middle East and Africa which caused contraction of hydrocarbon production. Particularly, oil extraction in Libya in March dropped by 70% down to 88.3 mln. barrels per day.