“Do you think oil prices are being kept artificially low until the election is over?”

That question came a few weeks back from someone whose opinion on politics I respect pretty thoroughly, who’s not just repeating something he read off a tinfoil hat-type web site. And I thought: Well, no, I mean, the market’s determining the price of oil and demand is down due to the economic crisis, so… no.

But as off 1:31 p.m. today, oil was up 11 percent, nearly $7 per barrel, “on signs Saudi Arabia had made substantial cuts in its crude exports and as global financial markets rallied.”

But… those cuts were announced days ago; yesterday’s story in fact was that oil had slipped $1 per barrel, and that:

Prices have as yet failed to made consistent gains on OPEC’s decision last month to cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day, although signs of reduced supply were mounting.

Saudi Arabia has cut oil supply to some major customers with immediate effect, industry sources said on Tuesday, easing doubts about whether the world’s top exporter will comply quickly with OPEC cuts.

But today, all of a sudden - those OPEC cuts took hold?