As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The author obviously picked a few "facts" to support a preconceived notion. Just the first such "fact", the first sentence:
"Over the past year, NYMEX crude oil prices (commonly quoted in the United States) have become disconnected from Brent crude oil prices (commonly quoted in Europe)."
The prices have never been tied together so there is no connection to be "disconnected", although both respond to the same macroeconomic conditions - the world economy in general, the US economy since the US is the world's largest consumer of oil, and the regional economies (with the ongoing mess in Europe is it any surprise that Brent has dropped quite a bit vs the "maybe" recovering US economy recently causing WTI to rise in price?).
Jim