The Telegraph: Saudi Arabia risks destroying Opec and feeding the Isil monster
'Saudi Arabia is acting directly against the interests of half the cartel and is running Opec over a cliff,' says RBC
The rumblings of revolt against Saudi Arabia and the Opec Gulf states are growing louder as half a trillion dollars goes up in smoke, and each month that goes by fails to bring about the long-awaited killer blow against the US shale industry.
Algeria's former energy minister, Nordine Aït-Laoussine, says the time has come to consider suspending his country's Opec membership if the cartel is unwilling to defend oil prices and merely serves as the tool of a Saudi regime pursuing its own self-interest. "Why remain in an organisation that no longer serves any purpose?" he asked.
Saudi Arabia can, of course, do whatever it wants at the Opec summit in Vienna on December 4. As the cartel hegemon, it can continue to flood the global the market with crude oil and hold prices below $50.
WNU Editor: The Saudis have not destroyed OPEC .... the development of new technologies and recovery methods has changed the price dynamics for oil .... especially in the past in the past 3 years. The Saudis were the first to recognize that the revolution in fracking technologies to recover oil in shale deposits was going to crash the price .... and they have acted accordingly to protect their markets. Other OPEC countries like Venezuela and Ecuador .... they are still stuck in the pre-fracking era, not realizing that a floor price for oil at around $50/barrel is now necessary in order to to keep this new technology from economically retrieving oil deposits and taking market share. Will this change .... will prices of $100/barrel return .... maybe .... but if new and more efficient methods are found to recover oil deposits ... OPEC as we know it is going to face some major changes.