Multiple OPEC+ officials have spoken out about the negative impact of “fake news” on oil markets, suggesting it has driven a disconnect between fundamentals prices. Standard Chartered believes these comments about unsubstantiated news stories driving volatility in markets are primarily an appeal from OPEC ministers for higher prices. The current 30-day realized Brent crude volatility is 44%, only 4 percentage points higher than this time last year, suggesting volatility isn’t abnormally high. Following the Saudi Energy Minister’s comments about the “disconnect” between oil fundamentals and oil prices, more OPEC officials have spoken out about what they suggest is fake news that is misleading the markets. In its latest report, Standard Chartered describes OPEC ministerial concerns about oil price volatility as “primarily straightforward appeals for higher prices”. At the same time, Standard Chartered’s bull-bear index for U.S. oil data has fallen week-on-week to -43.2 due to disappointing demand. On August […]