The price of crude oil managed to reach new highs beyond the important psychological level of $60 per barrel and was moving near its highest point for the past two years. However, now that movement has stopped.
This time the disruptions to price growth come from various sources. On the one hand, the United States has demonstrated a readiness to increase its exports, only again flooding the market. Furthermore, Iraq is also upping their oil exports in an attempt to make up for the decreased exports that happened over the last two weeks due to a Kurdish conflict there. That event actually boosted oil prices significantly, and now its countermeasure is driving prices down.
Even though growth has paused, prices seem to have consolidated near the good levels achieved last week. Currently the Brent crude is trading around $60.80, while the American light crude is at $54.05.