China, India demand to shape oil markets: Experts

DUBAI: Solid demand growth in China, India and emerging Asian economies, including the Middle East, are the key factors that will shape the world oil market and prices in 2010, experts said here today. Growing confidence in the global economic recovery has inspired hopes of rising oil demand in early 2010, but the Eurozone crisis and a strengthening dollar have encouraged continuing volatility in oil prices, they said at a meet on oil and petrochemicals market here today.

Addressing the meet, Dubai Multi Commodities Center chief executive Malcolm Wall Morris said,"we anticipate that long-term demand growth in China, India, emerging Asian economies and the Middle East region will be the key factors determining the shape of oil markets and prices through this year." Morris emphasised the various factors that have impacted oil prices, including currently high inventories of oil products, excess shipping and refining capacity left over from the 2008-2009 demand dip and China and India''s increasing prominence as oil product exporters.

Speaking about the outlook for Asian oil markets, Platts Middle East Editor Kate Dourian said there is a likelihood of constrained production in the future. She, however,highlighted the prospects of strong demand due to renewed growth in China and elsewhere in Asia.

Dourian also examined the effects of simmering geopolitical tension, demand-supply projections and the role of Iraq in helping to meet future demand during her address. Thomson Reuters senior energy correspondent Yaw Yan Chong spoke about the outlook for the Asian fuel oil market at the event, with a focus on supply patterns targeting the West and the Middle East.