A ray of hope for oil supplies

Posted Jan 17th 2008 8:30AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Forecasts, India, China, Brazil, Oil

While many older oil fields are producing less than they used to, new discoveries of crude may make up for that. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Projects under way in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, West Africa, the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will more than make up for natural declines from fields now in production."

If the information is accurate and oil demand falls due to an economic slowdown, prices for crude could drop over the next several years.

What is not clear is whether demand for oil in markets like China and India will continue to spike up. If the Chinese government is willing to underwrite the cost of gas and diesel for its industrial and consumer sectors, the use of oil in that country could continue to rise at an alarming rate.

Distorted demand, caused by the Chinese government, could be the wild card in oil pricing.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Tags: crude oil, CrudeOil, inthenews, oil, oil exploration, oil supplies, OilExploration, OilSupplies