"This weakness in crude is purely due to the influence of equity markets. Stocks have been up a bit this morning, so crude seems to be up as well on that,"
said a London-based trader. Global crude futures in morning European trading recovered some of their earlier losses, but were still significantly weaker versus overnight closing prices. The February NYMEX WTI contract lost over $4/b to $86.11/b in Asian trading, its lowest level since December 6 last year.

"The effect of higher oil prices on consumers might have a moderate impact [on demand], especially in the OECD," OPEC's Vienna secretariat said in its Monthly Oil Market Report.
"However," it added, "the same effect is diluted elsewhere especially in regions in which price subsidies shield consumers, such as China, India, and OPEC member countries." OPEC said Tuesday it expected demand for its crude in 2008 to average 31.52 million b/d, up from a previous estimate of 31.4 million b/d but some 307,000 b/d lower than the 2007 figure, which has been revised upwards by around 100,000 b/d to 31.82 million b/d.

Updated: January 22, 2008