Oil demand will soon reflect the “attractiveness” of the current level of crude prices, and Asia will be a vital engine of economic expansion for decades, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said. OPEC’s chief joined him in seeing Asia as the main hub for growth. Oil demand in Asia will rise by about 16 million barrels a day to almost 46 million by 2040, Abdalla Salem El-Badri , secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said in an article posted on the International Energy Forum’s website. The region will need to import 40 million barrels a day of crude oil and refined products by then, he said. Many Asian countries welcome the recent decline in oil, and demand “will soon reflect the attractiveness of the current prices,” al-Naimi said in an a separate article posted on the IEF’s website. “That said, it is not high prices or low […]