Many people thought the problem of high oil prices should have gone away by now. Either a reduction in the terrorism premium, a withdrawal of speculative money, a slowdown in Chinese demand or an increase in Opec (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) production should have reduced the crude price to more “normal” levels.
But here we are again with US crude oil futures nudging $53 a barrel. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Opec's acting secretary-general, even said yesterday that the price could hit $80 if a major supply disruption were to occur.
