“I am not sure there is a supply shortage,” Khalid al-Falih, the energy minister of the world’s top oil exporter and OPEC’s largest producer, Saudi Arabia, told Reuters in the middle of May, commenting on concerns that a growing number of supply outages may have tipped the market into deficit. Al-Falih was quick to point out that Inventories are still building, especially in the United States. Nearly at the same time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that the global oil market saw an estimated 700,000-bpd surplus in Q1 2019. Since the end of the first quarter, a number of supply issues have emerged – the U.S. ended all waivers for Iran’s oil exports, Venezuela’s production continues to dive amid a protracted political standoff and raging economic crisis, and Russian oil exports have declined due to contamination at a 1.4-million-bpd oil pipeline to Europe. Is the oil market in […]