India has a seemingly insatiable appetite for cars, as shown in this traffic jam in a suburb of New Delhi, and the oil needed to run them, contributing to growing worldwide demand for petroleum.
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: April 28, 2008
As oil prices soared to record levels in recent years, basic economics suggested that consumption would fall and supply would rise as producers opened the taps to pump more.
But as prices flirt with $120 a barrel, many energy specialists are becoming worried that neither seems to be happening. Higher prices have done little to attract new production or to suppress global demand, and the resulting mismatch has sent oil prices spiraling upward.