Combined oil demand by Asia’s four biggest consumers — China, Japan, India and South Korea — inched up a meager 0.4% in the first 10 months of 2014, on course to register the slowest pace of full-year annual growth since 2008, according to data analyzed by Platts. Platts data shows China, Japan, India and South Korea consumed on average 18.16 million b/d of liquid fuels (excluding LPG) over January-October, a mere 80,000 b/d or 0.4% higher than the approximately 18.08 million b/d used in the corresponding period of 2013. The four countries represent about a fifth of global oil demand, estimated to come in at 92.4 million b/d for 2014 by the International Energy Agency. China and India for the past few years have been among the biggest contributors to incremental global consumption. Barring any surprises in the final two months of the year, […]