The world’s benchmark crude oil, called Brent, is on the move up. The prices for liquid petroleum are going to get a lot higher before they finally start to come back to their equilibrium levels. They are being manipulated by the OPEC cartel and its cooperating non-members for the purpose of keeping price as high as possible. They are also aided by the US repudiation of the JCPOA whose sanctions reimpostion is not scheduled to start until November. We saw yesterday the first fear of sanction act by a major oil concern as Total the French giant reneged on a $100m investment it was planning to make in the Pars gas field in Iran out of fears of running afoul of those yet to be reimposed sanctions. It is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
