The Opec oil cartel no longer exists in any meaningful sense and crude prices will slump to $50 a barrel over coming months as market forces shake out the weakest producers, Bank of America has warned.Oil prices are now a bit above $60 per barrel. Also from The Telegraph:
Francisco Blanch, the bank’s commodity chief, said Opec is “effectively dissolved” after it failed to stabilize prices at its last meeting. “The consequences are profound and long-lasting,“ he said.
The free market will now set the global cost of oil, leading to a new era of wild price swings and disorderly trading that benefits only the Mid-East petro-states with deepest pockets such as Saudi Arabia. If so, the weaker peripheral members such as Venizuela[sic] and Nigeria are being thrown to the wolves.The recent decline in crude oil prices has caused the price of gasoline to fall, which is obviously good news for anyone who drives a gas-powered vehicle. Considering that America's economy was doing quite well during most of the 1990's, when the prices of crude oil and gasoline were considerably lower than they are now, I'm reluctant to view a further decline in oil prices as bad news. And considering that OPEC includes some countries whose attitude toward the United States isn't all that great, I don't think I'll miss their influence.
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