### Comment:
I would conjecture that in addition to economies, there is an intangible factor such as political influences in the world. I.e. how the u.s. has taken over the export from opec and continued to drive the price of oil down despite the effect on its local economy.

### REPLY:
It's honestly probably more to do with putting pressure on Venezuela and Iran. Remember that the Iran deal happened around the 2014-15 drop in oil prices and was followed by unrest and economic collapse in Venezuela. When Trump ended that deal, oil prices rose and Venezuela's political situation was at least calmer. Now he's begging the Saudis to keep oil low while he brushes aside concerns about Khashoggi and ramps up sanctions on Venezuela.

### END.