More than 3% of the world’s total oil production capacity is offline, bolstering what the Wall Street Journal is calling the “fear premium” that has pushed oil north of USD 50 per barrel. The Journal says “militant attacks in Nigeria, wildfires in Canada and political unrest in Libya” have taken c. 3.5 mn bopd out of production at a time when there’s “less slack to fill the gap.” It’s the most production taken out of service since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the newspaper quotes an analyst as saying. Market watchers are split on whether disruptions such as these will become an increasingly important factor in price dynamics or whether their impact is already fading.