Crude prices fell in July and early August as weak OECD refinery runs in June offset concerns about escalating conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Ukraine. At the time of writing, ICE Brent was below $105/bbl on hopes that US air strikes would lower disruption risks in major OPEC producer Iraq. WTI was around $98/bbl. The global oil demand growth forecast for 2014 has been lowered to 1.0 mb/d on lower-than-expected 2Q14 deliveries and a weaker GDP outlook from the IMF. Growth is set to accelerate to 1.3 mb/d in 2015 as the economy improves. Baseline demand estimates have been raised to reflect new 2012 non-OECD annual data. OPEC crude oil supply rose by 300 kb/d to 30.44 mb/d in […]