since February 18, 2011. US and EU sanctions are due to take effect in less than four weeks and analysts had long predicted the price would spike as a result. But, instead, the price is going in the opposite direction. The price of an OPEC barrel is now $10 below the level it was at just before Preisdent Obama signed the new sanctions bill into law on New Year’s Eve. That and the EU sanctions approved three weeks later sparked a price rise that peaked just shy of $125 one week before Now Ruz. Since then, the price has been on a slow downward slide that accelerated this last week. At $95.48 on Monday, the price had dropped 23 percent since the peak 12 weeks earlier. That is a sharp drop amounting to 1 percentage point every 2 1/2 days. The average monthly price (below) is now far below the average of $106 to $112 that prevailed through most of last year. But that can be misleading as the June average is based on only two trading days. Still, if the price continues its downward spiral, the current June average will soon look high.