'In the absence of a major financial meltdown, oil will end 2016 north of $60 a barrel,” wrote this columnist in early January. I’m sticking to that view.

Crude oil prices, which sank to a 13-year low in mid-February, have since risen by more than 80pc, and last week broke through $50 for the first time since last November.

This significant oil price rise is happening, though, despite and not because of the once all-powerful Opec exporters’ cartel. But that is not stopping Opec from trying to re-establish itself as the supply-limiting force it once was.

While there was no agreement on a production cap at the 169th Opec summit in Vienna last week, there was a definite air of rapprochement, led, unusually, by Saudi Arabia. As the world’s swing producer, often dubbed the global central bank of oil, Saudi Arabia has been used to getting its own way throughout Opec’s 56-year history.

The Desert Kingdom, perhaps uncharacteristically, is now learning to tread more softly.