“We will ensure prior to the reimposition of our sanctions that we have a well supplied oil market,” the special U.S. envoy for Iran, Brian Hook told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday. Hook, however, did not go into any detail as to how exactly this will happen. Even so, oil prices briefly subsided, helped by what some called a “surprising” build in U.S. oil inventories as estimated by the American Petroleum Institute. Earlier this week, prices spiked, with Brent hitting US$81 a barrel for the first time since 2014 on the back of clear signals from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they have no immediate intention of increasing production further. “Given the numbers we saw today, that (an output increase in 2019) is highly unlikely unless we have surprises on the supply and demand,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said last weekend during the OPEC+ meeting in Algeria. […]