1.   Analysts caution, however, that if the Asia crisis lowers oil demand or if oil prices stay down for long, even long-term projects may slow.

2.   An increase in heating oil demand would come at a time when robust European demand is preventing U.S. oil inventories from rising.

3.   Approval, however, would send a symbolic message that in the Bush administration nothing stands in the way of whatever the oil industry demands.

4.   Asian oil demand has grown substantially in recent years.

5.   At the same time, heating oil demand has increased because of unseasonably cold weather in the U.S. Northeast.

6.   A collapse in Korean financial markets and a weaker currency slowed growth in oil demand during the first half of the year.

7.   A slump in refinery operations, combined with lackluster heating oil demand this winter, drove crude prices to a seven-month low Monday.

8.   A. Fourteen months ago, the forecast for growth in Asian oil demand was an additional one million barrels a day this year.

9.   But some analysts said the group risks cutting too deeply just as heating oil demand picks up.

10.   But the overall result is that oil demand shows little sign of abating.