Brent oil futures open today’s trading session lower, around $116 a barrel as investors look to Europe’s debt situation to gauge short term oil price direction, however Asian oil demand remains strong, keeping a lid on lower oil prices for now. Latest Brent Oil Price In London, Brent crude oil futures for September 2011 delivery was trading at $116.63 a barrel, 08.30 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. Asian Oil Demand Oil bulls are convinced that growth rates in Asian countries like China of above 9 percent will still support robust demand for crude oil. “Investors need to be acutely aware that the emerging economies are still growing at 3 times the pace of the developed economies and have true energy demand. Even after 13 interest rate hikes, China still grew 9.5 percent, which has reversed the recent discussion regarding a hard-landing in China.” said Andre Julian, CFO & Senior Market Strategist at OpVest. Meanwhile, Japan’s demand for crude and oil products to fuel power plants could triple if the country shuts all its nuclear reactors due to growing public safety concerns after the March earthquake and tsunami. Japan may need to import an additional 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil and fuels to make up for the loss, according to Morgan Stanley. That would be eight percent of Japan’s total oil consumption, once again fueling Brent oil prices to move higher as oil demand tightens.

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