Brent oil spot price for actual cargo soars to $141, highest level since 2008 financial crisis

The futures price is “almost giving a false sense of security that things are not that stressed,” said Amrita Sen, founder of Energy Aspects, in an interview with CNBC’s “The Exchange.”

“You are seeing it but the financial market is almost masking the true tightness that everywhere else is showing up,” Sen said. The price for a barrel of diesel in Europe is almost $200 per barrel right now, she said.

If this goes on a bit longer, this is going to have profound and lasting effects. The political effects might be larger than the oil crisis of 1974, since at that time there were no ready alternatives for oil as an energy source in heating and transport.