In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Helima Croft, a managing director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and Middle East and North Africa Research at RBC Capital Markets. Croft talks about how the oil market has responded to historical events in the past and how current events have been influencing the oil market today. Croft and Raimi’s conversation ranges from Russia to Europe to China to Saudi Arabia to Texas and beyond. They discuss how the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Ukraine, and the US government have responded to recent high oil prices; the implications of sanctions on Russian oil and gas; and how the perception of Russian sanctions may vary across the international energy sector.

References and recommendations:

“The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources” by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-world-for-sale-9780190078959

“Syriana” the movie; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365737/

“Crude Volatility: The History and the Future of Boom-Bust Oil Prices” by Robert McNally; http://cup.columbia.edu/book/crude-volatility/9780231178143