Despite what your mom said, you don’t matter that much. In fact, with each passing day, you, me and the rest of the developed-world-dwellers are losing our clout. Today I’ll prove it to you with a few newfound energy statistics – plus, we’ll discuss what you can do about it. As I type, the developing [...]

China and the rest of the emerging market sector are carrying demand for oil higher, in what’s becoming a major shift change in the crude market. This according to Rigzone, “The International Energy Agency Friday raised its forecast for oil demand for 2013, citing expectations of higher demand from China, the world’s second largest oil [...]

The Norwegian Company Statoil is predicting oil demand to continue to increase for the next 18 years and then fall off due to increased efficiency and the rise of alternatives such as natural gas, Norwegian news site Aftenblad reports. Meanwhile global demand for natural gas, they project to increase 60% by 2040.

The recent rebound in crude prices is a good reminder that crude is a physical market, meaning it’s highly controlled by simple supply and demand. “Oil rose moved closer to $98 a barrel Wednesday” the Associated Press reports, “after a report showed U.S. crude supplies fell more than expected, a sign demand may be improving.”

A study out of Rice University titled The Rise of China And Its Energy Implications is shedding a scary light on just how much oil demand is set to skyrocket. “Together with non-transport use, China’s total oil demand would therefore reach more than 19 million b/d by 2040, putting China at oil use levels comparable to those in the United States” the study says. (P.S. that’s a lot of oil that this world doesn’t have.)

Your local gas station prices may be seemingly low but keep an eye on the price of crude oil. After running down to $95 a barrel on Friday prices shot up over $100 early Monday morning. Oil’s propensity to stay near $100 is telling, expect some resilience in this market and a strong trend forming in between $90-100…

“If global growth this year and next falls below 3%–a level previously said by the International Monetary Fund to be indicative of recession–oil demand could be significantly lower than current forecasts, the IEA said.” This according to Dow Jones could lead to an oil surplus for 2012. But I still wouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet. These expectations are still built into the current price per barrel – still perched at $83.