OilFinder2 wrote: Sorry to say, but oil demand in Korea is a bit more elastic than you think.
or not?
Crude inventories in S. Korea,
SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) - South Korea's commercial crude inventory fell nearly 37 percent by end-May from a year ago as high oil prices continued to discourage refiners from making new purchases, state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said Friday.
37%... ouchSouth Korea's four refiners -- SK Energy (096770.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), GS Caltex, S-Oil Corp (010950.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Hyundai Oilbank Corp -- had 14.51 million barrels of crude left in stocks by May 31, compared to 22.95 million barrels a year before, KNOC's monthly data showed.
That would be a loss in stocks of about 8.44 million barrels
Along with the fall, overall private oil stocks by end-May fell 8.9 percent from a year ago to 70.18 million barrels.
"The problem is continuing. High crude oil prices are pressuring refiners to use stocks rather than make new imports," said Uhm Kwang-yong, domestic products analyst at KNOC.
The end-May crude inventory volume was enough to meet 6.7 days of the country's demand, down from 10.9 days on average in the previous year.
So we don't really know how much usage has gone down... they have been using existing stocks.
Imagine what will happen to prices when they have to start importing again
Sorry OF2. The real world is more complicated than you perceive.