Just viewed the latest EIA report. It’s magical that price is all of a sudden going down, imagine if gasoline prices were really unpopular right now!
Drawdowns from the SPR only lead to increases in prices later on as those barrels have to be replaced. If anyone watched Daniel Yergin on Bloomberg last week, he said that the US producers are basically being ignored. He also stated that the domestic oil industry employs about 10.5 million people.
Not uncommon for any commodity that steep declines precede steady rises.
Oil prices fluctuating are normal, mainly because the price does not reflect supply and demand, rather commodity speculators gaming the price while controlling the flow. Even oil producers speculate on the price thru commodity traders. The Saudis and others do it. To most people it would seem odd that those who produce oil would be allowed to speculate in the very commodity they control would seem wrong, but it goes on. BP has had a commodity trading division for years and I would not be surprised if the other majors don’t also. Free market 