SocraticGadfly: Is OPEC imploding?

December 02, 2008

Is OPEC imploding?

Jim Jubak has the answers to both questions.

Shorter version? Yes on the implosion, and no, especially assuming Peak Oil is lurking, it’s NOT good for us in the longer run.
If you believe in some version of peak oil, which I do, then a post-OPEC free-for-all in the oil markets looks like a disaster. As it becomes more and more expensive to extract conventional and unconventional oil, the world is already looking at a bad case of underinvestment. The International Energy Agency has warned that a huge supply crunch awaits the world on the other side of the current supply glut because of underinvestment in new supplies of oil. Lower oil prices would just make that underinvestment worse.

Read the full story for more on Jubak’s answer to Question No. 2, as well as fallout within OPEC, and the Russian oil bear outside, on Question No. 1.

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