Great question. Heard said in podcast that there's heavy manipulation, but no idea how or exactly why. Supply down, demand relatively same... hmm

Strategic Petroleum reserve drawdowns. There’s only so much there, though.

US strategic reserves are at the lowest level in 40+ years.

market already "accepted" the current state as "normal", the current status is not unknown or worse. Market priced the unknown, and with some pessimism. Now it's "balanced". Just my ignorant opinion.

https://blossom.primal.net/b1f4cced7171a99213f848b1353a202186cf8ec20c91cdd9460ff8370d0dc223.gif

I have a commodities trader friend who was always calling for a short. Market manipulation based around the justification of fear is what drove the price to begin with, not an actual problem with supply.

OPEC

I’ve heard that what countries actually pay for the raw stuff is higher than what markets report. No idea how that works but that’s what I heard.

It’s not closed

Oil is easy to access. It’s dirt cheap to dig it. Also UAE left opec. A sharp rise and fall of oil also is synonymous to recession. The demand has been destroyed.

SPR drawdown helping some domestically, but the pain is coming. Can’t be avoided.

Oil price is a global price and there is a glut of oil, not a shortage. The shortage is in particular products, like jet fuel and fertilizer. So the price of oil didn't go up, but the price of flights and food did.

The commonly quoted Brent price is paper oil. The price can vary wildly by time, place, and grade of oil.