Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Leach, the first panel of witnesses mentioned earlier that the oil market was highly speculative. There has been a massive change in the past few decades.
We have talked a lot about supply and demand, but there is also oil as an investment vehicle. This explains—and you can confirm this for me—the sudden drop in the barrel price that we have seen in recent months. Basically, the fact that the market is very open accelerated this reasonably sudden drop.
To what extent could this “investment” factor, by which investors can more or less trust the future barrel value, influence things, either by sustaining a low barrel price or slowing the increase of the barrel price?