The oil price is now controlled by just three men
What really matters to oil is China. All signs point towards China having contracted the Japanese disease without the societal sophistication Japan has attained. If China – as it certainly looks like right now – goes into a tailspin, much less oil will be needed.
OPEC has lost what control of the oil market it ever had. The actions (or tweets) of three men — Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman — will determine the course of oil prices in 2019 and beyond. But of course they each want different things.