17.05.201823:09:00UTC+00Asia Oil Cost to Surpass $1 Trillion in 2018 as Crude Touches $80 per Barrel

The price of Asia's increasing appetite for oil will top $1 trillion this year, around twofold of the cost in 2015 and 2016, as oil prices reached $80 per barrel and continental demand hits a record.

Oil prices have rallied almost 20 percent since January and rose above $80 per barrel in intraday trading on Thursday for the first time since 2014.

With the strengthening of the U.S. dollar- in which most of the commodity is traded- worries are increasing regarding the size of the impact to economies from higher energy prices, particularly in Asia, where most countries are dependent on crude imports. Surging fuel prices could drive up inflation and affect both consumers and firms.

Asia-Pacific consumes over 35 percent of the 100 million barrels of oil the would utilizes per day, according to industry data, and its share is increasingly growing. The region is also the world's smallest-producing zone, representing for less than 10 percent of production.

According to U.S. bank Morgan Stanley this week, they said that diesel use contributes 10-20 percent to cash costs for miners, while contributes from 4 percent to 50 percent to the price of power generation, depending on a firm's or a nation's fuel mix.

China is Asia's largest importer of oil, importing over 9.6 million bpd in April and representing almost 10 percent of global consumption. At the present prices, the figures amounts to a Chinese oil import bill of $768 million per day, equating to $23 billion per month and $280 billion annually.