We've gotten way WAY off topic here. But since you brought up this aspect of the ongoing discussion of "government" as opposed to "The Government," here's one answer:
It's not magical at all. It happens almost all the time.
First, it takes about ten bucks to bring a barrel of oil out of the ground. But oil isn't sold like groceries or other retail items. It's sold by contract and the contract bidding process is often if not always in flux. So the oil that comes out of the ground today was sold well before it was excavated. Events cause upward and downward bidding, and so do emotional reactions to those events.
Katrina influenced oil price bidding because buyers and sellers feared scarcity because of damage to the rigs in the Gulf. It also went up when the Iran nuke story broke (although we nominally don't buy oil from Iran, Iranian prices affect world prices and therefore, OUR prices.)
When you get stories about refining capacity shortages, the price goes up... again, not the price you pay today, but the price you pay in 30 or 60 or 90 days.
When stories about surpluses emerge, the prices fall.
Those are the mechanics, and I've gone on at length to show you how direct factors can influence prices. But there are other factors, too and they are more subtle.
If insiders, oil executives, buy a lot of their own stock or sell it, Wall Street notices. That can influence the price of oil. Why would they trade in their own stock? Maybe they want to raise cash, so they sell. Maybe they see a rosy future, so they buy. But these guys supposedly can see what's happening before the rest of us.
Now. say, for argument's sake, that you're the head of the Federal Petroleum Reserve and you report that your inventory is up considerably from, oh, six months ago. Once that's out, the price of oil will change.
If you're an influential member of the House or Senate or a White House functionary with the President's or Vice President's ear, and you mention the advantages to business and the administration of an increase or a decrease, you can bet those oil futures contracts will be bid in the direction you want.
No quid pro quo, of course. But the next time Godzilla Oil wants an EPA exemption for a new refinery, or to drill beyond its lease or some other favor, that favor will be granted.
Is there a conscious conspiracy to bring oil prices down in advance of an election? Probably not per se. But, then, high ranking officials don't need to be too specific, because they're talking to dogs of their own breed when the deal with the oil business.
And it's not just oil. But that's for another thread at another time.
