As the U.S.-China trade war escalates, a growing number of analysts and organizations have increased warnings that further trade tensions could dent economic growth, consumer spending, and investment flows globally—all of which could curtail the world’s oil demand growth. Robust oil demand, geopolitical tensions, plunging Venezuelan production, Libyan outages, and returning U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil have all combined, at various times, to boost crude oil prices so far this year. Yet, numerous challenges to the global economic growth have recently emerged, with political uncertainties taking center stage, OPEC said in its closely watched Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) on Monday. Among these political uncertainties, “it is trade-related developments in particular that warrant close monitoring in the near-term,” OPEC said, noting that the strong economic growth forecast assumes that there won’t be significant rises in trade tariffs and current disputes will be resolved soon. “Rising trade tensions, leading to […]