OIL SECTOR IN FOCUS

Traders watched with alarm as US jets bombed a major Middle Eastern oil producer. An initial surge in the price of crude turned into a rout as soon as they realized that oil flows would continue unaffected. The year was 1991, and the US bombing campaign was against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In just one night, prices collapsed by 30%. Three decades later, oil traders are picking up the pieces from a 12-day rollercoaster ride that saw prices surging and tumbling in the most manic period of oil trading since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Once again, traders spent nights glued to their desks, joining conference calls in the early hours of the morning and relentlessly working government and military connections for intelligence to give them a trading edge.