In Newsweek, a Chinese oil official from CNOOC warns than the current low prices are causing numerous production projects to be canceled because of skewed financing pegged to $70 a barrel – naturally meaning another supply shock is on the way.

One of the many reasons that oil prices spiked to $150 earlier this year is that in the 1990s, when prices were $12 a barrel, oil firms stopped looking for new reserves. That resulted in supply shortages and, when demand for oil picked up this decade, spiraling oil price inflation.