European refineries will come back on line after their usual late-winter and spring maintenance, and weak European economies are expected to gain strength.

WSJ: Rising Demand for Oil Spells More Price Pain

"Countries could just accommodate the divergence by not putting their clocks forward in the spring, so you'd change your time zone by one hour to bring civil time back into line with the Earth's rotation, " added Dr Whibberley.

BBC: Changes to the world's time scale debated