How quickly things can change in oil markets. A month ago the industry was fixated on Iran sanctions, possible supply shortages and a lack of global spare production capacity — issues that drove benchmark Brent oil prices over $86 a barrel in early October. Fast forward to now: Brent is down 20% to around $66 a barrel while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is at about $56 a barrel. Saudi Arabia is calling for 1 million barrels per day of production cuts from its OPEC peers and non-OPEC allies, led by Russia, from 2019.
