If oil is this cheap, I'm not buying and EV car, especially not one of those great super affordable ones from China (that we can't buy anyway).
I'm going to continue to destroy the environment with my gas-guzzling SUV and offensive rhetoric.
Oil hasn't been this cheap for years. You can thank China
OPEC says the country's economy is weighing on global demand expectations
By Melvin Backman, Quartz
Published 6 hours ago
Oil futures were trading below $70 a barrel on Wednesday, the lowest levels they’ve seen since 2022. One of the factors hitting prices is the wrong kind of OPEC cut: The cartel said in its monthly oil report Tuesday that it is now forecasting global oil demand to increase by just 2 million barrels per day this year, down from the 2.1 million barrels it mentioned last month.
West Texas Intermediate is trading at about $66 a barrel, its lowest level since 2021; Brent is at about $69 a barrel, its cheapest since last year.
Much of that softening demand came from China. OPEC expects China’s economy to grow by 4.6% this year and 4.3% next year; neither are the 5% clip that China has set as its expectation for GDP expansion. Capital Economics laid the blame pretty squarely at Beijing’s feet in a research note Tuesday.
“The further plunge in the oil price today probably reflects news that OPEC revised down its 2024 and 2025 forecasts for oil demand, mostly on the back of weaker demand from China,” the group said. “That is in line with earlier data out of China which showed crude oil imports are down year over year.”
OPEC sprinkled in some optimism into its oil report, but a bit of doom-and-gloom remains.
“Domestic consumption in China remains a focal point of concern, influenced by ongoing uncertainties in the housing sector and a decline in discretionary spending,” the cartel said in its report. “The government has demonstrated its commitment to bolstering domestic demand through various measures.” However: “While these measures represent a step in the right direction, their current scale may be insufficient to significantly boost domestic consumption on their own.”
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