[jaguar]

That means demand by manufacturing, transport etc is a higher number of millions of bpd (barrels per day) than the number being produced by the oil producing nations.

It doesn't seem to have really got out yet but plenty of nations have started going all out to secure remaining supplies in ways that enlightened self interest would not dictate if there was not a high chance of future supply problems that could dictate economic prosperity.

Look for example at the 3-way cage fight over russia/china/japan pipelines, china and japan have always been a tad unfriendly (something about raping and pillaging, I think) but the way that little stink was carried out suggested a certain level of desperation.

Watch what's going on in Russia, political as the Yukos trial may be many people are starting to think that the government is going to use the outstanding tax debt to snap yukos into pieces and sell it off to more pliable companies or even nationalize it, why? They want the political weight that will come with direct control of Russia's increasingly important oil supply.