China Oil Demand 'Stabilizing' - Forbes | Oil demand slipped in July by 2%. Remember when everyone thought that China would suck up all the known oil on the planet and send prices to $200 a barrel? That was basically Goldman Sachs' call back in the summer of 2008. Even though oil isn't near where Goldman had forecast it to be five years ago, it can count on two things for support: Middle East strife, and Chinese demand. ...Implied oil demand eased 2% month over month from 9.94 million barrels a day in June to 9.77 mb/d in July. Oil demand is up 6.4% from July 2012 levels. The small pullback last month was a result of modestly lower refinery runs, which increased 7% to 9.52 mb/d. So far this year, China's oil demand reached 9.87 mb/d, up 5.1% y-o-y from January-July 2012.