The Hill - Brenda Shaffer Opinion
There is no consensus among oil watchers about which direction the global oil price will go. The fundamentals point to two opposite trends:
On the one hand, several significant geopolitical risks point toward upcoming supply downfalls, which would boost the oil price. On the other, economic data in a number of major markets, including China, points toward recession, which would bring oil demand down. Which trend will have the upper hand?
On the supply side, two major sources of supply loss are already factored into the oil price: Venezuelan instability that will continue to bring down its oil production and U.S. sanctions that will continue to slice supplies from Iran.