Oil prices are heading lower as we jump into the fifth month of the year, amid concerns from a mixed bag of global economic data and increasing exports from Libya. Crude continues to hunt for signs of material market tightening, hark, here are five things to consider in oil markets today. 1) The chart below shows that U.S. imports of Middle East crude have continued to hold strong in recent months, despite the OPEC production cut deal. Total waterborne imports are up 3 percent through April versus year-ago levels, while imports from the Middle East are up 23 percent. While Saudi Arabia continues to supply the majority of the barrels, Iraqi flows have doubled in each of the last two years, at a current pace just under 600,000 barrels per day through the first four months of the year. (Click to enlarge) 2) The year-on-year surplus for total U.S. […]