Speculators in the frame as Wall Street shudders

THE SEPTEMBER crisis on Wall Street coincided with a slump in oil prices to around $90 a barrel. That brought into question the claim of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that institutional investors' investment in energy futures was not the primary reason for the rise in oil prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008. Indeed, the fall in oil prices in the face of bullish physical fundamentals – with most US Gulf of Mexico oil production unavailable because of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike (see p12) – appears to support Opec's view that speculators are largely to blame for oil-price inflation.