Oil Pro: Focus On The Fed, Not OPEC

OPEC nations will gather in Vienna this week but this analyst is more focused on the Federal Reserve.

Tamar Essner, NASDAQ Energy Director, was a guest on CNBC early Wednesday morning and explained why she is paying closer attention to the Federal Reserve than the outcome of the OPEC meeting.

According to Essner, oil is currently trading in an "in-between moment" where the market is in the process of balancing supply and demand. Meanwhile, there are a lot of factors that are both positive and negative for the oil market so the bullish or bearish case for oil hold equal merit.

She added it is difficult for the market to agree which direction oil will trade in without an external force, such as the Federal Reserve, "setting direction" for the US dollar.

The oil pro continued that the rally in oil has been driven by "strength in near term futures rather than deferred prices" and that buyers of oil are hedge funds and investment firms, rather than actual users of the commodity.

"I think that the dollar will really be an important determinant in terms of where fund flows go which will set the trajectory of oil prices - at least over the next 6 months," she said.