Massive jump in Chinese oil demand

The month of January saw a huge jump in the demand for oil from China, amounting to an increase of 28% compared to the same month last year.

The figures have forced the IEA (International Energy Agency) to change it´s forecasts for global demand for 2010 by 1.8% to 86.6 million barrels a day according to the BBC, Oil prices have also seen an increase, rising to almost $83 dollars a barrel. This increase was caused by "heightening of geopolitical tensions affecting some producing countries", according to the IEA. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) increased it´s forecast for 2010 on Wednesday, these increases in demand appear to be fueled almost entirely by developing countries such as China and India and it now looks likely that future demand will mostly originate from these countries, on the other hand the US and other developed countries seem to be seeing a leveling off in oil demand with the US for example having a modest increase of 200,000 barrels a day during 2010.