Looming petrol glut, rampant crude output threaten price rebound

Singapore

A REBOUND in oil prices this year from 12-year lows is in danger of coming to a crashing halt, as the main engine of global demand growth for the past several years starts to sputter amid signs of a gasoline glut.

Crude oil has rallied more than two-thirds from its mid-January nadir on robust demand from refineries worldwide, stoking cautious optimism among producers and exporters that the epic rout that slashed global prices by 75 per cent between mid-2014 and early 2016 is finally over.

But rampant production of oil products, especially …