The next impact was to see oil prices recover last year from the multi-decade lows to around the $40-$50 per barrel. Indeed by the year end the trend had take the price over $60, way above where any predictions are.
However, there is still a big variable. The USA has become a bigger supplier of crude than Saudi Arabia, second only to Russia. The shale oil that the US has is ready for export and the US refineries don't rely on Saud anymore with imports down heavily to less than 10% of the US market.
Shale is now profitable at the $60 mark quite easily and rig counts are rising slowly in the US. So this may well put a cap on the price rises, even as Russia has agreed to extend production cuts (incidentally and anecdotally, supplies of processed oil from Russia are being pushed away from Europe to China, which long-term the Kremlin sees as a more stable political ally - good luck with that!).
So to date in 2018 we have seen a drop off in the price of crude, perhaps marking the top of this recent boom and seeing a more stable pricing for the rest of the year. A benefit of this to the little UK play in oil and gas is that $60 also works, just, for the remaining North Sea oil so there should be a small recovery in Scotland that is more sustainable.
All of this has big impacts on geopolitics, it is not coincidence that Saudi is throwing its financial muscle around whilst it still can.
