Asia Recovers Its Appetite for Oil

Bloomberg ------- Forget oil's drop below $50 a barrel and rising U.S. stockpiles. Emerging Asia, home to more than half the world's population and 40 percent of forecast economic growth through 2020, is showing signs of recovering its appetite for crude. Oil exporters' love for the region has long been unrequited. Saudi Arabia and Russia have been fighting a proxy war over Chinese market share for several years. Saudi Aramco has been so keen to make friends with Asian buyers that it's occasionally offered its Arab Light crude for a discount of as much as $2.30 a barrel over the main benchmark for Middle East exports to Asia. For most of last year, Asia seemed reluctant to return the affection. Demand from the region's three big importers -- India, Japan and China -- was by turns pleasingly hot, worryingly cold and oddly tepid. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.