RE:Intervention by Gov't & their cohorts
Get a grip buddy. Oil and gas prices go up and down all the time. This is because of supply and demand, speculation and fear such as last year with Ukraine and Russia. High prices lead to more production and less demand so prices drop causing lower production and more demand causing prices to go up again.
Oil and gas markets have always been volatile and likely always will be. Oil and gas companies had a very good year last year. This year is not looking so good although things can change very fast. The smarter oil and gas companies used last years large profits to pay down or better yet eliminate debt and now are still doing resonably well even with lower prices for oil and gas.
For those who cant handle the volatilty and see conspiracies behind every rock oil and gas stocks may not be the sector for you.