Dr. Riam Ali Hussein
Uncertainty plays a major role in the instability of oil prices, especially when crises occur in the oil supply areas. Which increases the imbalance conditions between supply and demand for oil. With the emergence of ISIS and its occupation of parts of Iraq, and the loss of control over these oil fields in those ISIS- occupied areas from the hands of the Iraqi state, accompanied with the possibility of interruption of Russian oil exports during February of 2014. All of these conditions and events led to a confusion in the oil market, and this was accompanied by the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in its ministerial council meeting in November 2014 to not reduce the production quotas for member states, and maintaining a production ceiling at a rate of approximately 30 million barrel per day. With the organization stressing that the burden of reduction must be contributed by producing countries outside OPEC (Russia – the United States) to maintain oil prices.
