George Murphy's fuel price predictions for Jan. 18

Here’s what I have for this Thursday’s price changes:

• Heating and stove oils show a half cent a litre increase.

• Diesel fuel shows an increase of 7/10ths of a cent a litre

• Gasoline shows an increase of 2.3 cents a litre.

Market highlights

Demand for world oil rising?

Some hints in the news this week may bring some a little hope for rising oil prices, but again it’s the potential influence of U.S domestic shale production that keeps things a little tempered.

News reports out of China are implying a growing demand again as their economy ramps up, but it’s their neighbor to the south, India, that seems to be drawing more attention as the country seems to be importing more oil than usual to meet its growing oil refining sector.

Indian imports of oil have reportedly hit close to 4.8 million barrels a day. A few short years ago, the country was distantly thought of as a potential reason for increasing world demand. It's still a very young but growing economy.

U.S rig count rises again

The rig count south of the border is starting to show more signs of growth in what may be the first real sign of a response to rising world oil prices.

The Baker Hughes rig count this past Friday saw an additional 15 rigs go back to work with 10 of those specifically searching for oil. The other five pursued natural gas, but no doubt would have oil as a residual to their production.

With oil prices hitting $70 US for Brent this week and $64 US for West Texas Intermediate, there’s plenty of room for speculation.

But the rig count may itself be the reason why we may yet see a more cautious market approach to the $70 US a barrel level. A second week of robust rig count growth may be enough to signal a retreat after this Friday, as it could be seen as a sign of growing U.S output and a hedge against OPEC production cuts.,

That’s it for this week!

George Murphy is a former MHA who has turned predicting the price of gas into a hobby.