This statement lines up with a recent statement by an IEA spokesperson that stated that OECD inventories would drop 200 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007.

Based on the steep drop in OPEC prodcution in January (including Iraq which was down 400,000 bpd per the Oil Daily), I think that the total two quarter drop may exceed 200,000,000 barrels.

So, currently demand is being met by a combination of (declining) production and inventory drawdowns.

As I noted yesterday, the average monthly spot Brent oil price was about two-thirds higher in the 20 months after 5/05 than in the 20 months prior to 5/05, while the world has produced about 325 million barrels less oil, than if we had just maintained the 5/05 crude + condensate production rate.