All things come to an end – and it’s looking like it is now OPEC’s time:
Shot:
“The reality is that only Saudi Arabia and perhaps the U.A.E. and Kuwait are prepared to make any cuts, and those will be modest and short-lived,” said Bob McNally, founder of consultant Rapidan Group in Washington. “At best, Iran and Iraq will sign for production freezes.” Perhaps with that in mind, Khalid Al-Falih, the Saudi oil minister, tried over the weekend to change the OPEC narrative. Oil prices will stabilize next year, “and this will happen without an intervention from OPEC,” he said in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, according to the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
“If OPEC does not come up with a credible agreement to cut production on Wednesday oil prices will end the year below $40 a barrel and be chasing down $30 a barrel early next year,” said David Hufton, chief executive officer of brokers PVM Group Ltd. in London.
Chaser: American Frackers who aren’t part of OPEC and are motivated ONLY by self-interest.
And in this case, self-interested Americans pretty much don’t care a whit about the Saudis and that they’re running dry – their Treasury, that is. I think it quite a great thing, given that the second biggest export item has been their fundamentalist Wahabist Muslim theology. No money? No more funding of extremist Muslim mosques around the world. Suits me just fine.
(H/T: Instapundit)
