The oil price rally so far this year was as much a result of tightening supply as it was a sign of oil demand growth holding resilient and defying doom-and-gloom forecasts of a significant slowdown due to faltering global economic growth and trade disputes. With oil prices rallying more than 30 percent year to date, concerns started to emerge (again) that higher oil prices will begin to dampen demand in large oil-importing nations, especially in the key demand centers in Asia. Yet, appetite for crude, be it in Asia or elsewhere, is dependent on more factors than the nominal price of crude oil. For refiners, it’s the refining margins—the profit they make from turning a barrel of crude into gasoline, diesel, or other refined oil products. Therefore, crude oil demand is a direct consequence of refiners’ refining margins in various regions of the world, analysts tell Bloomberg . At […]