Hedge funds have taken their bets. The market is convinced that Saudi Arabia will ignore the revolt within Opec at a potentially explosive meeting on Friday, continuing to flood the global markets with excess oil.

Short positions on US crude and Brent have reached 294m barrels, the sort of clustering effect that can go wildly wrong if events throw a sudden surprise.

The world is undoubtedly awash with oil and the last storage sites are filling relentlessly, but speculators need to be careful.

They are at the mercy of opaque palace politics in Riyadh that few understand. Helima Croft, a former analyst for the US Central Intelligence Agency and now at RBC Capital Markets, says the only man who now matters is the deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The headstrong 30-year-old has amassed all the power as minister of defence, chairman of Aramco and head of the Kingdom's top economic council, much to the annoyance of the old guard. "He is running everything and it comes down to whether he thinks Saudi Arabia can take the pain for another year," she said.

The pretence that all is well in the Kingdom is wearing thin. Austerity is becoming too visible. A leaked order from King Salman - marked "highly urgent" - freezes new hiring and halts public procurement, even down to cars and furniture.

The system of cradle-to-grave welfare that keeps a lid on public protest and holds the Wahhabi state together risks unravelling. Subsidies are draining away. It will no longer cost 10p a litre to fill a petrol tank. VAT is coming. There will be a land tax. Yet these measures hardly make a dent on a budget deficit running near $140bn a year, or 20pc of GDP.

The German intelligence agency BND issued an extraordinary report warning that Prince Mohammed is taking Saudi Arabia into perilous waters. "The thus far cautious diplomatic stance of the elder leaders in the royal family is being replaced by an impulsive interventionist policy," it said.

The war in Yemen - Saudi Arabia's "Vietnam" - grinds on at a cost of $1.5bn month. It is far from clear whether the Kingdom can continue to bankroll Egypt as Isil operations spread from the Sinai to Cairo suburbs.

The war in Yemen - Saudi Arabia's "Vietnam" - grinds on at a cost of $1.5bn month. It is far from clear whether the Kingdom can continue to bankroll Egypt as Isil operations spread from the Sinai to Cairo suburbs.

David Fuller's view

Here is a PDF of AE-P's article.

The rest of this article is very informative and I commend it to all subscribers.

What can we expect over the next six to eight months?  I would not be surprised to see to see crude oil move closer to $30 in the near term.  However, with big shorts in Brent and WTI crude and the Saudi’s able to squeeze the market temporarily by suddenly reducing supplies, a sharp rally of 50% plus is likely to follow.