What a difference a day makes

摘要

In mid-August all the signs were that prospects for the oil industry were looking up.However,by 18/19 September there were suddenly a number of black clouds on the horizon.Oil market pricing has always been heavily affected,even driven,by the US market-the largest single market for oil and oil products.By mid-August all the props for high prices-which had peaked at 78/b in July-were being removed or re-evaluated.Crude oil product stocks were building,the US driving season was ending,no hurricanes had damaged oil facilities and US economic growth appeared to be slowing.Sentiment was also changing about the biggest price prop of all-fears about the security of Middle East oil supplies in the face of the stand-off with Iran over nuclear enrichment.