Given the predictions of unseasonally warm weather this very large jump in the price of crude(if it holds) is all the more remarkable, on top of which natural gas, heating oil and unleaded gasoline prices have also risen. Talk of OPEC cutting production in January (regardless of temperatures) is an indication of the rumour mongering going on in the murky world of energy resources. I'm just as inclined, if not more so, to believe the threat of oil sanctions by Iran, after the U.S. announced that it was imposing trade embargoes against 5-6 companies accused of having sold sensitive materials to the former. If the weather should (against predictions) turn colder in the U.S., then one has to wonder what that alone will do to prices.