Over the past 12 months, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices have jumped as high as $76.41/bbl and plummeted as low as $42.53/bbl as sentiment in the commodity futures market lurched from bullish to bearish extremes.

On the downside, fears of excess supply out of US shale, weakening demand due to a slowing global economy and a string of much larger-than-expected, counter-seasonal US inventory builds since early May have prompted some of the largest one-day sell-offs in oil since the 2007-09 financial crisis and the early days of the 2014 -2016 bear market.