The price on Tuesday—the last day on this chart—was $110.12. The price of an OPEC barrel has been lower than that only a single day this year. And that was the first trading day of the year, January 3, when the price was $109.40. That was when the price began to take off after President Obama signed new sanctions into law on New Year’s Eve. The rise continued through mid-March (in the middle of the chart above) and then began a slow slide that accelerated in recent days. The monthly average chart (below) shows that the price still has some distance to go before it returns to the $100-$110 range that prevailed for much of last year. But based on the daily price, it is almost there.
