P.M. BRIEFING : No OPEC Oil Cutbacks Expected
Despite the sharp drop in oil prices, OPEC nations are unlikely to reduce crude oil production anytime soon in an already flooded market, analysts predicted today.
“I don’t think anybody is going to cut back until they are certain about what’s going on,” said Peter Bogin, associate director of oil markets at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Paris.
“They have their eyes pointed to the Middle East and that’s all they are doing,” said Pierre Terzian, editor of the Paris-based newsletter Petrostrategies.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which said nothing when Iraq invaded fellow cartel member Kuwait on Aug. 2, has not officially reacted to the outbreak of war in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region.
There also have been no hints OPEC ministers will gather soon to assess the turmoil in the markets.
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