With oil, it’s all about supply Howard Gold's No-Nonsense Investing - MarketWatch

Since popular revolutions started breaking out across North Africa and the Middle East early this year, crude-oil prices have taken off.

Entrenched despots in Tunisia and Egypt bit the dust. Libya faces civil war as madman Moammar Gadhafi clings to power, while regimes in Bahrain and Yemen feel the heat from populations demanding change.

And uneasy lies the head that wears a crown in the House of Saud, the biggest oil producer of all. Worries about Saudi Arabia’s stability have spilled over into the Saudi stock exchange, which lost almost 7% of its value Tuesday and is off 16% for the year.