OIL: Vitol's Muller Flags China Travel as a Key Oil Demand Driver in 2024

Vitols’s head of Asia Mike Muller commented on Red Sea attacks at a conference Wednesday.

• The Red Sea attacks were "very much newsworthy, they're very important, and some carry great dangers, but things like the joint military action to prevent missiles from Yemen hitting merchant fleet coming through the Bab al Mandab have not served to materially disrupt shipping routes and have not served to materially disrupt oil prices," Muller said.
• He said he expects US oil production growth of 1mn bpd last year to slow with oil output hitting 13.5mn bpd or 13.6mn bpd in a year.
• On China international travel demand, Muller said: "If you have 30 million to 35 million Chinese joining the spending-saving middle classes, even if only a fraction of them jump on planes for the first time in their life, I think we're going to see jet demand close that pre-COVID"