Is OPEC Too Big To Fail? Not Anymore

Oilprice.com ^ | 10-09-2015 | OPEC collapse

[bananaman22]

A lot of people, including several OPEC members, thought the oil slump would be easing by now. Instead, as oil prices languish near multi-year lows and experience unprecedented volatility, it’s now unclear how long it will take oil prices to recover. Indeed, OPEC now appears poised to wait out the period of low prices even if that takes months or even a couple of years.

The fact of the matter is that despite the calls of Venezuela and Algeria, Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC members don’t seem too concerned about the current low prices. Venezuela in particular has been calling for emergency action for nearly a year now with essentially no effect.

OPEC’s willingness to wait on prices is causing some commentators to wonder if OPEC is “winning.” There is certainly little doubt that OPEC appears poised to keep its own production levels where they are, especially with the possibility of Iran bringing new supply online in the next year or two. Instead, the production declines in global output thus far have largely been a byproduct of falling production from non-OPEC unconventional sources.

[zzwhale]

house of saud and other big opec members “not concerned”...
is that why they are borrowing BILLIONS to try to keep the lid on with social programs.... they are shaking in their tents... and keeping the jets fueled and provisioned for a quick exit... add to that the cost of the yemen situation... and riyadh has a HUGE PROBLEM...

[thackney]

From the article: “Non-OPEC producers have largely been the swing producers for this oil price cycle, cutting production massively as prices have fallen”

What massive production cuts? The cuts have just begun to trickle in a year after prices started falling.