Surging fuel costs are starting to weigh on global demand according to Mike Muller, head of Asia at Vitol Group in a Gulf Intelligence podcast released on Sunday.

• “There’s very clear evidence out there of economic stress being caused by the high prices, what some people refer to as demand destruction,” Muller said, adding “not just oil, but also liquefied natural gas.”
• “Refining margins are at levels that nobody would’ve predicted,” Muller said. “The consensus out there seems to be that they cannot possibly go even higher than this.”
• “More Chinese export quotas would be welcomed by the market and would do something to normalize those margins,” he said. “But month after month, the disappointment sets in that the system is being kept relatively tight. It would appear that discipline is still very much in place.”