{"id":4087,"date":"2015-01-05T11:30:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T16:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4087"},"modified":"2015-01-05T11:34:51","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T16:34:51","slug":"top-five-factors-affecting-oil-prices-in-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4087","title":{"rendered":"Top Five Factors Affecting Oil Prices In 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/oilprice.com\/Energy\/Energy-General\/Top-Five-Factors-Affecting-Oil-Prices-In-2015.html\" target=\"_blank\">Top Five Factors Affecting Oil Prices In 2015<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>As we ring in the New Year, let\u2019s take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months.<\/p>\n<p>The big question is what oil prices will do in 2015. Oil prices are unsustainably low right now \u2013 many high-cost oil producers and oil-producing regions are currently operating in the red. That may work in the short-term, but over the medium and long-term, companies will be forced out of the market, precipitating a price rise. The big question is when they will rise, and by how much.<\/p>\n<p>So, what does that mean for oil prices in 2015? It is anybody\u2019s guess, but here are the top five variables that will determine the trajectory of oil prices over the next 12 months, in no particular order.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. China\u2019s Economy.<\/strong>\u00a0China is the second largest consumer of oil in the world and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.cfm?id=15531\">surpassed<\/a>\u00a0the United States as the largest importer of liquid fuels in late 2013. More importantly for oil prices is how much China\u2019s consumption will increase in the coming years. According to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eia.gov\/forecasts\/aeo\/pdf\/0383(2014).pdf\">EIA<\/a>, China is expected burn through 3 million more barrels per day in 2020 compared to 2012, accounting for about one-quarter of global demand growth over that timeframe. Although there is much uncertainty, China just\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/12\/31\/us-china-economy-pmi-idUSKBN0K902920141231\">wrapped up a disappointing fourth quarter<\/a>, capping off its slowest annual growth in over a quarter century. It is not at all obvious that China will be able to halt its sliding growth rate, but the trajectory of China\u2019s economy will significantly impact oil prices in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Five Factors Affecting Oil Prices In 2015 As we ring in the New Year, let\u2019s take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months. The big question is what oil prices [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[130,244,589,1775,596],"class_list":["post-4087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-china","tag-economics-2","tag-oil-demand","tag-oil-price-collapse","tag-oil-supply"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4093,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}