OIL PRICES

摘要

After hitting recent peaks close to US$79 per barrel in mid-June and again in early July, Brent crude dropped to US$70.62 on August 13. With this ebbing in prices (West Texas Intermediate also eased, to US$67.25), both OPEC and the International Energy Agency are warning of the risk of trade disputes (US sanctions on Iran, tit-for-tat tariff wars between the US and China) on global demand in their recent monthly market outlooks. Meanwhile, just one month after OPEC agreed to increase oil output, Saudi Arabia has unilaterally decided to scale back its production in a bid to push up prices and offset the dampening impact of an increasingly strong US dollar (the currency in which oil is denominated).The Saudis are targeting oil of around US$80.