The rise and fall of oil prices in 2018

Prices rose, Trump hollered, supply signals were mixed, Iran was hit by sanctions and then prices fell back

2018 proved to be another year of mixed fortunes for the oil and gas industry, with prices firming up to levels that were more common pre-2014, before dipping down in November as fears of global oversupply, amid retrenchment in global economic growth, began to kick in. Nonetheless, for most of the year, the narrative was one of steadily rising prices—sufficient for the ever-voluble US President Donald Trump to make repeated calls for price restraint from Opec. With prices rising in June, Trump tweeted on 13 June that "oil prices are too high, Opec is at it again. Not good!" Whether good or not, Trump's moves may have had some short-term impacts. On 23 June, an Opec ministers' meeting in Vien