The dangers of an interventionist oil market policy
The dangers of an interventionist oil market policy / Thijs Van de Graaf, EU Energy Policy Blog, 1/07/2011
The international oil markets have been quite turbulent for the past several months. The wave of protests sweeping the Arab world and the loss of Libyan sweet crude have fueled fears of shortages and have driven oil prices higher. Last week, on June 23, the western industrialized countries therefore decided to play their trump card: the strategic oil reserves. Over the course of the coming month, 60 million barrels of oil will be released onto the market from the emergency supplies of the United States, Japan and some European countries…