“The other significant loser here may be OPEC itself....”
As in virtually all oil contracts in which the host country takes the lion’s share of oil production, falling prices always mean that those countries take the lion’s share of the hit of revenue when prices plunge.
Translation: oil companies are more downside-protected in international oil activities compared to US projects. The majors will much more aggressively go after those venues.
Means that OPEC is not really a loser here as more money will be attracted to their oil projects, although their overall revenue will decline.
So winners are consumers and third world countries possessing lots of oil.
Losers are those domestic companies who exploit US only oil.
I must be missing something. Why is falling prices for the oil result in more money to the oil projects?