Garry Regan sent along this article as a follow up to last week's discussion about energy. High U.S. domestic prices will have little affect on the global market which continues to be strengthened by huge growth in China and India.

High Oil Prices Won't Cut Demand, IEA Economics Chief Says

By Jim Kennett

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Oil prices pushing well past $100 a barrel will do little to stop worldwide demand, the economics chief for the International Energy Agency said.

Subsidies in China, India and oil-producing countries will combine with strong economic growth in those areas to support demand even with rising prices, Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, told a panel at the energy industry's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. That runs counter to history, which saw demand fall about 2 percent during the high prices of 1973 to 1974, and more than 7 percent from 1979 to 1981, he said...

...China alone will import 13 million barrels of oil by 2030, nearing the level of U.S. imports, as the number of drivers rises from 20 out of 1,000 people to 140 out of 1,000, Birol said. That compares to 860 out of every thousand residents in the U.S.

Read the full article here.