Xinhuanet

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Tuesday warned of a possible renewed oil demand boom in 2005 and is telling oil producers to be on their guard against unexpected events.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, and Saudi Aramco started engineering work on a US$3.5 billion refinery in China’s southern Fujian Province, a Saudi official said.

Crude oil futures fell after a US Energy Department report showed rising imports boosted inventories by three times the amount analysts forecast. But “it would be very dangerous not to keep filling the reserve,” said Kjell Aleklett, president of Uppsala, Sweden-based Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, an energy researcher.

China imported 76 million tons of crude oil in the first eight months of this year, making up 40 percent of the total domestic demand, a six percent rise over 2003.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday his government will look into ways to lessen the country’s dependence on crude oil.

The Philippine presidential palace Wednesday said it is imperative to cut the Philippine dependency on oil to lessen impacts of oil price hikes on citizen’s lives.