NPR. Usually when there's a war in the Middle East, oil prices shoot up.

But that's not what's happening right now with the Israel-Hamass War.

Prices are now back down below the point they were before these events started.

Richard Bronze is the head of geopolitics at the consultancy Energy Aspects.

And it's counterintuitive given as the Middle East is such an important region for oil production

for most of the rest of the world.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Whelan Wong.

And I'm Darien Woods.

Today on the show, in a time of seismic upheaval in the Middle East,

why are oil prices falling?

We take you through the region's history, geography, and markets to explain.

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