Oil is closing in on the highs for the year in response to a surprise draw to crude inventories (all paths lead back to energy, all inventory surprises lead back to imports), while OPEC rhetoric once again loiters in the background, acting as an omnipresent influence these days. Hark, here are five things to consider in oil markets today. 1) Each day feels like walking through molasses, as we fight through the daily barrage of OPEC rhetoric. Comments are juxtaposed with the actions of the cartel, and we can see this playing out every day in the global flows of our ClipperData. Today’s example comes via flows to the leading destinations of demand growth: China and India. All 14 OPEC members have sent crude to the two emerging markets (even Libya, with 975,000 bbls of light sweet Sarir discharged at Dalian last December), and imports to the […]