Despite the crisis in Venezuela, which could shut in a lot more oil supply, global crude prices have been mostly flat for two weeks. Oil traders have weighed prospect of serious outages in Libya , Iran and Venezuela against the unfolding slowdown in the global economy. The tepid price movements over the last two weeks is rather surprising, given the tightening of supply. The OPEC+ cuts are taking effect, and U.S. data is starting to reflect these changing market conditions. “The weekly report from the EIA on U.S. oil stocks was bullish for outright prices, plain and simple,” Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London, told Bloomberg . However, “more hard work is needed to turn this market unreservedly bullish.” Ultimately, the cracks in the global economy will outweigh the tightness on supply-side factors. Global growth has started to slow. Chinese factory data has shown […]