It also becasue a lot of the mid-east oil being pumped is Heavy sour crude....... The light sweet stuff is what the refinerys in the states are designed for....Notice the rash of refinery blow ups in the recent past mostly due to problems putting through the sour stuff. Still will prob get a short term easing in POO...Also chinese and Thai & malaysian policy of capping gas prices has meant the refiners in those countries are not importing as are making a loss. If gas price caps are lifted in china watch demand explode up wards.