NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Stacy Vanick Smith.

And I'm Patty Hirsch.

And how high do you like your oil prices, Stacy?

I don't like them that high, honestly.

They're getting up there now, though.

They are getting up there.

And they're high right now, of course, because the market is tight.

That's the technical term.

It basically means there's lots of demand for oil, but just not enough supply.

And there are more than a few things behind this tightness.

There is soaring demand.

As economies all around the world pull out of the pandemic, there's all the supply chain

issues that we've talked about on the show.

There's also a shortage in natural gas, which means a lot of energy providers have switched

from burning gas to burning oil.

And there's the resistance by the OPEC plus cartel to pump more oil than it is right

now.

And we have this concern about a major geopolitical event that could take additional supplies off

the market.

This is Heli McRought.

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