A bedrock belief among oil forecasters has been that China’s voracious appetite for fossil fuels would stoke global energy demand for decades to come. That assumption now appears increasingly shaky. As WSJ's Bradley Olson and Brian Spegele report:

A highly anticipated new energy-demand projection from Exxon Mobil Corp. released Monday cuts the company’s expectations for China. And a slew of data is emerging that points to the toll a weakened economy has taken on Chinese energy demand, which is among the most important factors in determining the price of crude oil. Exxon cut its forecast for annual energy-demand growth...