The global oil market has been on a roller coaster. Oil prices are highly sensitive to mixed news which cause sharp swings up and down. Investors are pricing in the US sanctions against Iran, exemption for several buyers of Iranian oil, contraction of oil output in the Middle East, booming oil drilling in the US and lots of other factors. Traders seem to be fed up with this nonstop stream of events and just let it go. As a result, oil prices have got into a downward spiral. Brent crude oil slumped 6.6% to an 8-month low in a single trading day on November 13. Brent future were last trading at $65.99 a barrel on March 19, 2018. The bear trend was deepened by a survey from OPEC. It reads that supply outweighs demand nowadays. A week ago, OPEC was ready to increase oil output, aiming to offset disruption of oil supplies due to the embargo on Iranian exports. At present, the cartel has revised its rhetoric, so that major oil exporters are serious about cutting their oil production. No doubt the OPEC discussions did not escape attention of US President Donald Trump. He expressed his disapproval in the hope that OPEC would not nail down production cuts. Indeed, the US is not interested in inflated oil prices. Experts say that the US leader puts pressure on OPEC by his verbal interventions.
