On Tuesday this week, the Wall Street Journal published an exclusive report citing unnamed sources from OPEC who said that the group was considering suspending — note the wording — Russia from the OPEC+ output agreement so other members could pump more. Oil fell.
Have you noticed that OPEC+ went from discussing production "quotas" which every member tried to cheat to discussing production "targets" which now every member has failed to meet. It seems OPEC+ might be out of spare capacity, then again this cartel is run by governments and national oil companies which means it is insanely inefficient in every way imaginable and it is arguably the most inefficient cartel in the history of cartels that are inefficient...and just like that, I set a record for the use of the word 'inefficient' (score one for the good guys!)
Exactly. Not sure all of their national oil companies are inefficient, although theoretically they should be. The UAE, for example, has made good use of its oil money to turn itself into a real estate billionaire magnet. Last I heard they were working to make themselves a high-tech hub or something. I call that pretty smart. Not true for all OPEC, of course, even most of it.
UAE is definitely at the top in terms managing oil revenues and implementing some resemblance diversification but the bar is set pretty low in all fairness. I strongly recommend reading Oil 101 by Morgan Downey if you haven't already...actually it might be too much of a 'trading' book since he's an oil trader but it does have tons of goodies on geopolitics and OPEC+ inner workings albeit from a trader's perspective.
You're right, the bar is way too low for comfort. It's the oil curse's fault, I guess. Yet there are signs of progress here and there, and that's good. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.
Irina, great article - and yet we have the double standard American President killing American oil production while trying to meet with the Saudi's to beg for more oil. Thanks again for great writing.
great analysis Irina! I wonder whether these conflicting stories were part of an OPEC information strategy - test the waters as it were - before the actual meeting took place.
Who are we to believe if there are multiple sources? Whose source or which source is accurate and unbiased? That's like putting a lot of fact checking on the table so we have to separate the wheat from the chaff.
There is precious little unbiased information, but official is official, so I'd go with it. One thing to not trust, for me, are fact-checkers but we already all know this.
Have you noticed that OPEC+ went from discussing production "quotas" which every member tried to cheat to discussing production "targets" which now every member has failed to meet. It seems OPEC+ might be out of spare capacity, then again this cartel is run by governments and national oil companies which means it is insanely inefficient in every way imaginable and it is arguably the most inefficient cartel in the history of cartels that are inefficient...and just like that, I set a record for the use of the word 'inefficient' (score one for the good guys!)
Exactly. Not sure all of their national oil companies are inefficient, although theoretically they should be. The UAE, for example, has made good use of its oil money to turn itself into a real estate billionaire magnet. Last I heard they were working to make themselves a high-tech hub or something. I call that pretty smart. Not true for all OPEC, of course, even most of it.
UAE is definitely at the top in terms managing oil revenues and implementing some resemblance diversification but the bar is set pretty low in all fairness. I strongly recommend reading Oil 101 by Morgan Downey if you haven't already...actually it might be too much of a 'trading' book since he's an oil trader but it does have tons of goodies on geopolitics and OPEC+ inner workings albeit from a trader's perspective.
You're right, the bar is way too low for comfort. It's the oil curse's fault, I guess. Yet there are signs of progress here and there, and that's good. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.
Irina, great article - and yet we have the double standard American President killing American oil production while trying to meet with the Saudi's to beg for more oil. Thanks again for great writing.
Don't forget the damage that American President also did to the Canadian oil industry. 800000bbl/day.
Great read again - tks
great analysis Irina! I wonder whether these conflicting stories were part of an OPEC information strategy - test the waters as it were - before the actual meeting took place.
I'd say it was quite likely. Or they were just having fun with the media.
Who are we to believe if there are multiple sources? Whose source or which source is accurate and unbiased? That's like putting a lot of fact checking on the table so we have to separate the wheat from the chaff.
There is precious little unbiased information, but official is official, so I'd go with it. One thing to not trust, for me, are fact-checkers but we already all know this.