Syria is the oil market's crisis du jour. Some sort of U.S. intervention in that country's civil war now looks likely, perhaps within days. That raises the prospect of disruption to oil supplies—and higher prices. The big fear is that overt U.S. action in Syria touches off a wider conflict. Brent crude has risen 5% since the start of last week.But oil bulls shouldn't bank on it really being as simple as that. The other counterweight to geopolitical fears pushing up prices is inventory. U.S. stocks of oil, in particular, are overflowing. --Liam Denning, The Wall Street Journal, 28 August 2013
