Oil back in the spotlight as a source of concern

Through the first half of the year, the price of benchmark Brent crude oil trebled to around £30 per barrel, the point at which an automatic increase of supply from producer countries in the OPEC cartel is supposed to click in. It did not and, after some procrastination, it was left to Saudi Arabia to go it alone to declare an extra 500,000 barrels per day output. The move was unpopular with OPEC but greeted with relief by the commodity markets. The problem is, supply has increased but the oil price has not dropped to anywhere near the $25 level hoped for. Instead it has stuck stubbornly a...