OIL PRICE CRISIS - Saudi Arabia Won’t Cut Oil Production to Boost Prices

 Global oil prices are tanking, but OPEC is holding firm on not slashing production to buoy prices

Saudi Arabia will not cut oil production to boost depressed prices, a reversal in the Kingdom’s usual policy of moderating supply to control prices and sending a strong message about the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) strategy for dealing with a slumped oil market.

Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi told reporters on Sunday that even if non-OPEC countries cut production, Saudi Arabia will not follow them, Reuters reports. Other ministers, including from Kuwait and Iraq, repeated the Saudi minister’s insistence on retaining steady production levels.

A boom in U.S. shale gas production has flooded the global oil market and sent gas prices tanking.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi Arabia’s refusal to cut oil production has led to speculation that the world’s top petroleum exporter could be seeking to knock gas prices even lower, testing U.S. shale gas producers resolve to keep pumping. Saudi Arabia has denied any such plot and American officials have reiterated that the U.S. maintains close and friendly relations with the Kingdom.

Delegations from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela have met for the first time in such a format for talks in Vienna to discuss rapidly dropping oil prices. Could rapidly falling oil prices trigger a nightmare scenario for the commodity derivatives market? The big Wall Street banks did not expect plunging home prices to cause a mortgage-backed securities implosion back in 2008, and their models did not anticipate a decline in the price of oil by more than 40 dollars in less than six months this time either. massive losses. In some cases, the losses will be absorbed by oil producers, but many of the big players in the industry have already locked in high prices for their oil next year through derivatives contracts. The companies enter into these derivatives contracts for a couple of reasons. cost of production. Secondly, derivatives contracts protect the profits of oil producers from dramatic swings in the marketplace. So the oil companies that have locked in high prices for their oil in 2015 and 2016 are feeling pretty good right about now. In many cases, it is the big Wall Street banks, and if the price of oil does not rebound substantially they could be facing absolutely colossal losses.

– and since the entire world is rolling over into yet another round of global recession, following not only a Chinese slowdown to a record low growth rate, but also a recession in both Japan and Europe,The UK’s oil industry is in “crisis” as prices drop

Oil companies and service providers are cutting staff and investment to save money.

“close to collapse”. Almost no new projects in the North Sea are profitable with oil below $60 a barrel “Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi had told last month’s OPEC meeting the organization must combat the U.S. shale oil boom, arguing for maintaining output to depress prices and undermine the profitability of North American producers, said a source who was briefed by a non-Gulf OPEC minister.” For those looking forward to the day when these mammoth banks will collapse, you need to keep in mind that when they do go down the entire system is going to utterly fall apart.

The Cold War 2.0 is going hot, and while it may someday be fought with planes, tanks, guns and bombs, the first front is being fought with oil and shale gas.

The U.S. and European sanctions against Russia will become more severe and crippling in the face of drastically falling oil prices unprecedented boom of shale gas fracking both domestically in the U.S. and abroad in Ukraine and other locales. The oil & gas giants like Chevron and Exxon Mobil have created revolutionary conditions with now direct consequences on U.S. foreign policy and global war for dominance.


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