Chinese Oil Demand 101: The Role of Electricity

Despite recent decreases in crude oil prices and concern over the pace of economic growth in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, supply and demand fundamentals underlying the oil market remain strong. Far from reducing their expectations of global oil demand growth for 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook and other forecasters have recently raised their demand projections. EIA is currently projecting global oil demand to average 88.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2011, 1.7 million bbl/d higher than in 2010. Of that increment, China alone is expected to account for some 700 thousand bbl/d. Why such strong growth, and why the upward revisions, given that most forecasters are becoming, if anything, slightly less optimistic about China's economy?