The price of oil is the largest manipulated market in the world, controlled by OPEC OPEC actually has no say in what the oil price is Imagine being the materials buyer for Fuji Film, Kodak, Foxconn, Dow Chemicals, etc and etc during that time. Needing tonnes of silver for manufacturing and production, you would have been pulling your hair out trying to keep costs from blowing out. There is silver users association, only one such user cartel existed in our world gold supply, is very much static the way to play the shock and awe game, is to sudden dump of sell orders, and flood silently or announcing the big sale order before hand, to mold the markets participants' expectation. imagine the fun one would get from disturbing the human language, so much fun. the babel tower fell.
OPEC does not set the actual price of oil, but they have a direct effect on the pricing by manipulating production. When the price is low, OPEC reduces production to tighten supply, when the price gets too high and consumption starts to slow, they increase production to ease supply. With new oil producing nations coming online in the past decade or so, OPEC has lost some influence as many of these nations did not join OPEC, but oil market is still not a free market and is heavily influenced by OPEC. Here is the mission statement of OPEC taken from their website - The mission of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry. Here is a direct quote from the The Silver Users Association website- 'Become a member of the Silver Users Association and join a network of industry leaders that are interested in maintaining an orderly silver market and shaping public policy.' Bold emphasis mine That sounds like a license and intent to interference with the marketplace... in other words... manipulation.
