gulfnews : Oil market disappoints the interventionists

The release of 60 million barrels of crude oil from strategic stocks by the International Energy Agency (IEA) was camouflaged to cover the loss of Libyan exports but it was seen by many as nothing less than an attempt to intervene in the market to bring prices down and break Opec or at least teach it a lesson.

The oil market behaved in exactly the opposite way. After an initial decline, which was short-lived; prices regained the lost ground and went even further.

On June 22, the day just before the announcement that the US would release 30 million barrels and the rest of IEA would release a similar volume, the price of the Opec basket of crudes was $107.96 (Dh396.21) a barrel, which went down to $101.55 on June 27 before it recovered by the end of the month and continued a slow rise though in a volatile manner.

* username: rupertbu