PE Outlook 2019: A year of turbulence

The mood music at year-end 2018 was increasingly gloomy, as economic and political factors spook oil and gas markets

Oil prices rose - then sank. President Trump was true to his word and pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement. Major oil producers Brazil and Mexico elected new presidents, both of a populist persuasion (though cut from rather different political cloths). Saudi Arabia found itself caught up in a diplomatic embarrassment, following the murder of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Democrats retook Congress in the US mid-term elections, and the US broke records, pumping more than 11mn barrels a day of crude. Britain continued to torture itself over Brexit, and Trump kickstarted a trade war with China. Meanwhile, Venezuela's oil production collapsed as the troubled Latin