{"id":241,"date":"2008-08-13T14:29:21","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T14:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/?p=241"},"modified":"2008-08-13T14:29:21","modified_gmt":"2008-08-13T14:29:21","slug":"slowing-demand-knocks-oil-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/08\/13\/slowing-demand-knocks-oil-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Slowing demand knocks oil prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first\"><strong>Oil prices have remained low after US government figures showed a sharp slowdown in US demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite rising 89 cents to $113.51 a barrel in Asian trade, US light sweet crude remained well off recent records above $147 which it hit in July.<\/p>\n<p>Benchmark UK Brent crude rose 89 cents to $111.54, but traders said slowing in US demand is likely to cap prices.<\/p>\n<p>Prices sank on Tuesday after US figures showed a sharp slowdown in domestic demand, triggered by higher fuel costs. <!-- E SF --><\/p>\n<p>Data from the US Energy Department&#8217;s Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed demand for oil in the first half of 2008 saw its sharpest drop in 26 years, compared to a year before.<\/p>\n<p>US demand for oil fell 800,000 barrels per day for the first six months of this year, compared to the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/petrolpump.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-242 alignright\" style=\"float: right;\" title=\"petrolpump\" src=\"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/petrolpump.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a>The EIA predicts that US oil demand next year will be at its lowest since 2003, at 20.08m barrels per day on &#8220;prospects of a weak economy and continuing high crude oil prices&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The latest figures showed that while US demand dropped sharply, non-industrialised nations saw demand rise by 1.3m barrels per day for the first half of 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the data, Kyle Cooper, an analyst with IAF Advisors, said: &#8220;It takes a lot of bullish arguments away, but $113 is still not cheap.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Separately, a plan between Russia and Georgia to end fighting between the two nations eased concerns that supplies in the region could be disrupted.<\/p>\n<p>Though Georgia is not an oil producer, key crude and gas exports are transported through it, and BP had closed all three pipelines through the region as a precautionary measure. <!-- E BO --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil prices have remained low after US government figures showed a sharp slowdown in US demand. Despite rising 89 cents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}