[xjcsa]

If that were true, then in the long term, speculators, as a group, would gain nothing, and lose nothing.

Is that also true of all commodity traders and stock brokers too? Have you really not thought this through at all? Speculators make their money by buying low and selling high; they can also speculate by short-selling high in anticipation of a downturn. They make money by anticipating the price curve; they lose money by guessing wrong. There's simply no mechanism by which they can influence the price of oil over any significant amount of time.

[gas0linealley]

” Speculators make their money by buying low and selling high;”

Selling to whom?