Yet that seems to have already happened to an extent, with £27 billion ($A56.18 billion) wiped off stock markets in all seven Gulf states markets following Saturday's announcement on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency deemed Iran "compliant" and nuclear-related sanctions were lifted.
And London is bracing for a second wave of crisis to hit when its markets open today, Saxo was more philosophical.
"After years of sanctions and underinvestment we doubt that Iran can just turn up the volume and it will take longer than the market believes before full its potential is reached. If this turns out to be the case, it may eventually help oil to stabilise," Saxo's head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen said a day before sanctions were lifted.
The market seemed to ignore his sooth-saying, with West Texas Intermediate falling $US1.78, or 6.08%, to $29.42/barrel, while Brent crude dropped even more, 7.22% or $2.09, to $28.04/bbl on Friday.
Everything except the safe haven commodity, gold, and iron ore, were down, including the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and the S&P 500, as markets were haunted by Iran saying it could lift exports by as much as 500,000bpd and gradually boost shipments by the same amount again.
Nymex crude oil settled down 5.7% at $29.42/bbl, its lowest point since November 2003 amid concern over Iran adding to the glut which is already not expected to ease until well into next year, and China's economic slowdown.
Chinese trade data earlier last week helped reduce demand worries after imports in December surged to a record 7.8 million barrels, some 10% higher than the year before.
While this helped stabilise the price above $30/bbl for a number of days, US Secretary of State John Kerry saying sanctions against Iran could be lifted "within days" helped trigger renewed selling.
Relations between Iran and the US appeared on edge when Iran took Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other Americans hostage in return for US concessions, in a turn of events that the Wall Street Journal called "Iran's hostage triumph".
"On Saturday we learned the ransom price: $100 billion as part of the completed nuclear deal and a prisoner swap of Iranians who violated US laws. Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps should call this Operation Clean Sweep," the WSJ opined.
"The timing of Iran's Saturday release of the Americans is no accident. This was also implementation day for the nuclear deal, when United Nations sanctions on Tehran were lifted, which means that more than $100 billion in frozen assets will soon flow to Iran and the regime will get a lift from new investment and oil sales.
"The mullahs were taking no chances and held the hostages until President [Barack] Obama's diplomatic checks cleared."
Speaking to the lifting of nuclear sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said "everybody is happy except the Zionists, the warmongers who are fueling sectarian war among the Islamic nation, and the hardliners in the US congress," referring directly to Israel, the Saudis and some GOP lawmakers in the US.
He added that Saturday marked a "golden age" in Iran's history, as the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Sunday that "the oil ministry, by ordering companies to boost production and oil terminals to be ready, kicked off today the plan to increase Iran's crude exports by 500,000 barrels", citing deputy oil minister for commerce and international affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia.
Yet the billion-dollar question is: just how quickly Iran can increase its production.
A survey carried out by Bloomberg, to which Hansen contributed, found that Iran was likely only to increase production by 100,000bpd per month after sanctions are lifted, and by 400,000 barrels in six months' time.
Whatever the case, Iran will now have access to some $100 billion in frozen funds, with the European Commission set to undertake its first "technical assessment mission" next month to explore energy ties with Iran.
The EU, facing an energy and raw materials crisis, is particularly keen to develop Iranian supplies to reduce its reliance on Russia - though the devil you know may be better than the one you don't.
On Thursday Bente Nyland, director general of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, told Bloomberg that the country's oil industry was "in crisis now - we can't deny that", though the government has ruled out another stimulus to boost the economy.
What is certain is that an overhang of already-produced and now stored supplies in Iran will be looking for a home as soon sanctions are lifted, Hansen said.
Mapping surveys from Reuters indicating that several very large crude carriers with capacities of two million barrels each are almost fully loaded and ready to set sail.
Hansen says this will apply some additional pressure in the short term, not least considering the limited success oil had in trying to establish support above $30/bbl last week.
"The impact of the extra barrels from Iran has already had a profound impact on the price relation between Brent and WTI crude as well," Hansen said.
"Geopolitical risks and supply worries combined with rapid rising production in the US saw WTI crude enter into a discount against Brent back in 2010. The recent removal of the US crude export ban saw WTI and Brent merge. The extra barrels from Iran are now applying some additional pressure on Brent crude, the global benchmark.
"As a result, we have seen WTI crude regain its premium status all the way out to December 2017."
He said rising supply from Iran and a second weekly surge in US inventories would continue to extend the time before demand catches up with supply.
The Energy Information Administration's latest short-term energy outlook does not expect the first draw on global oil inventories before the third quarter of 2017.
"Only a sharper-than-expected slowdown either forced through bankruptcy or agreed to by some of the major producers will bring forward the timing of the rebalancing," Hansen said.
