, Columnist
Russia, Turkey and World War G
Tensions could affect a critical transit point.
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Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet was bound to inject some vim into otherwise listless oil prices. The real impact may actually be felt in another important energy market: natural gas.
President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back,” a phrase with a particularly dire provenance in Europe. This marks a dangerous new escalation in the Syrian conflict, which is why Brent crude nudged up a dollar and change a barrel on Tuesday. Yet the path to a wider conflict that actually takes a substantial amount of oil supply off the market remains unclear. That extra buck or so on the price represents a nebulous, rather than specific, fear.