Since November 2020, oil prices have risen by 70 percent, hitting $70 per barrel in March. A united OPEC+ (comprising the 13 OPEC members plus 10 other big oil exporters), fast-recovering economies, the snowstorm in Texas, and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East—the recent Houthi attack on a Saudi oil exporting facility being just the latest in a series of military provocations—have pushed oil benchmarks high.
The sharp upward hike has reinforced predictions that oil prices will soar when the COVID-19 pandemic fully abates, marking the beginning of an oil supercycle, with prices potentially shooting toward or even above $100 per barrel—a level not reached since 2014. If this happens, oil would be only one of the many commodities that would benefit from unprecedented demand on the back of expansionary fiscal policies adopted by governments around the world.
