{"id":42146,"date":"2018-12-31T09:59:57","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42146"},"modified":"2018-12-31T09:59:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:59:57","slug":"why-oil-prices-rose-and-crashed-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42146","title":{"rendered":"Why Oil Prices Rose And Crashed In 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Oil Prices Rose And Crashed In 2018<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Last week the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil,\u00a0the primary U.S. benchmark,\u00a0fell to a 17-month low. The price, $45.88\/bbl, marks a stunning fall from a price that closed at $76.40\/bbl on October 3rd.<\/p>\n

So, what has caused this roller coaster ride, and where are prices headed as we head into 2019?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s first review how to we got to sub-$50 oil\u00a0as we near the end of 2018. That\u2019s important, because I think it strongly\u00a0influences what is likely to happen in 2019.<\/p>\n

Why Oil Prices Rose in 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my\u00a02018 predictions<\/a>, which I will grade in a couple of weeks, I projected that oil prices would reach $70\/bbl in 2018. The price of WTI, the U.S. benchmark, rose to that level in May and remained there for most of the summer.<\/p>\n

There were several reasons I expected oil prices to rise. The threat of sanctions on Iran, global demand that continues to rise (despite increasing\u00a0predictions of the demise of demand growth), and the deteriorating situation in Venezuela were just three of the reasons I predicted higher oil prices.<\/p>\n

But if you had asked me in mid-summer what I expected for the rest of 2018, I would not have anticipated an oil price collapse. I largely attribute this decline to an\u00a0unexpected variable in the oil markets that I call \u201cThe Trump Effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Trump Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Trump has done some good things for the oil industry, but he has a\u00a0blind spot<\/a>\u00a0when it comes to oil prices. He has been vocal about the need to keep oil prices low, even as the U.S. becomes an increasingly important global oil producer.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Oil Prices Rose And Crashed In 2018 Last week the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil,\u00a0the primary U.S. benchmark,\u00a0fell to a 17-month low. The price, $45.88\/bbl, marks a stunning fall from a price that closed at $76.40\/bbl on October 3rd. So, what has caused this roller coaster ride, and where are prices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14994,592,23083,9141],"class_list":["post-42146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-14994","tag-oil-price","tag-oil-price-com","tag-robert-rapier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42147,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42146\/revisions\/42147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}