The real reason why oil is so expensive

OPEC pumped an average 32.35m barrels a day in March, down 85,000 barrels from February. Production by the 12 members with quotas (all except Iraq) fell 30,000 barrels to 29.97m barrels a day. This is the first time output has fallen in seven months.

On Saturday, OPEC

“Oil supply to the market is enough and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar’s value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world.”

I believe that a significant amount of this is bravado: OPEC does not want to reduce output because member countries know their oil is in limited supply and they want to get the maximum price they can muster.

MoneyWeek