Riyadh expects steady increase in global demand for oil and supply-side concerns fade in second half of 2015. UPI/A.J. Sisco NEW YORK, April 9 (UPI) — Prospects for a brief slowdown in U.S. oil production and demand expectations from Saudi Arabia gave oil prices a major lift in Thursday trading. Ibrahim al-Muhanna, an adviser to the Saudi Petroleum Ministry, said before the Saudi Economic Association in Riyadh the bear market for crude oil was an unnatural and temporary market phenomenon given growth expectations in a recovering global economy. “I am of the view that the world’s current political, economic or petroleum problems are temporary and their effect on the whole world system is limited,” he said in his address. “In most aspects, especially the economic ones including those of energy and oil, the world is on a progressive track where setbacks are temporary and short-lived.” At a minimum, he […]