Reason #44 Why I Love To Blog -- March 18, 2016

Remember that story about India: "India's oil demand on verge of "take-off"? Posted just a few days ago.

Look at this, from Reuters: India in driver's seat as fuel demand roars at fastest rate ever.

Not just increased demand, but demand growing at fastest rate ever.

From the linked story:

Hundreds of thousands of Indians, spurred by cheap credit and rising incomes, are buying cars each month to free themselves from creaky, unreliable public transport.

This is expected to help push India ahead of China as the energy demand growth leader, with its total fuel consumption rising by a tenth to a record in the fiscal year-to-date. 

Underpinned by annual economic growth of 7-8 percent, India's fuel demand is seen as a key oil price support over 2016-2017, eating into a supply overhang that has pulled down global crude as much as 70 percent since mid-2014. 

India has already pipped Japan as the world's third-largest oil consumer. By 2040, India will have more than doubled its current oil use to 10 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), about on par with China's consumption last year. 

This roar of motor - as well as power and household - fuel use means some refineries initially planned for exports, such as the 300,000 bpd Paradip refinery on India's east coast, have been flipped to serve domestic oil demand.

The graphic below has so many story lines, I won't even begin, but the one that stands out most of me is the steady decline in the second graph, regarding Japan. That is simply incredible. A gentrifying population that prohibits immigration must not need much energy.