The article is 2 pages long but definitely worth the read. If someone has already linked I apologize for being behind the times.
from the Asia Times, May 6th:
Speculators knock OPEC off oil-price perch
By F William Engdahl
The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It is controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?
First, the role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex in New York and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices which in turn set most of the freely traded oil cargo. They do so via oil futures contracts on two grades of crude oil - West Texas Intermediate and North Sea Brent.
A third rather new oil exchange, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), trading Dubai crude, is more or less a daughter of Nymex, with Nymex president James Newsome sitting on the board of DME and most key personnel British or American citizens.
Brent is used in spot and long-term contracts to value much of crude oil produced in global oil markets each day. The Brent price is published by a private oil industry publication, Platt's. Major oil producers including Russia and Nigeria use Brent as a benchmark for pricing the crude they produce. Brent is a key crude blend for the European market and, to some extent, for Asia.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has historically been more of a US crude oil basket. Not only is it used as the basis for US-traded oil futures, but it is also a key benchmark for US production.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE06Dj07.htmlTried to add graph from page 2 but was unsuccessful