 Economist: Oil Factoids. IEA. On Friday, it said that China, which consumed about 6.4m barrels per day (bpd) last year, would add another 500,000 bpd to this total in 2005. Last month, it thought China would add only 400,000 bpd.
The loss of Iraq's production is exactly this gap: OPEC will no doubt decide that it is pumping enough oil. But does it have enough oil wells? That may be the more interesting question broached this year, if not next week. According to some estimates, the cartel is currently using all but 1.5m bpd of its full capacity. It will need a cushion at least twice that size, analysts reckon, if it is to insulate the oil market from the shocks felt last October and in the past week.
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