From Barron's Emerging Markets Daily:
When will OPEC drop production? Not anytime soon.
Citing several OPEC officials, the Wall Street Journal reports today that OPEC would likely lower the ceiling on its collective production if oil prices fall to $70 a barrel. But that’s a level that most OPEC members don’t expect to see this year.
Oil prices have been in a month-long slide. The decline was arrested Wednesday when a fire was reported at a pipeline in Saudi Arabia and rebels attacked Libya’s main oil field. But the market turned lower early today on after worries about production in Saudi Arabia and Libya eased.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 1.27%, at $77.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude was down 0.55%, at $83.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange.
OPEC members face rising competition in the U.S., where hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have bolstered domestic production. The resulting glut and speculation that OPEC won’t do enough to tackle oversupply when it meets on Nov. 27 to discuss output led oil prices into a bear market last month....MOREWTI $78.13, down 55 cents and approaching the spike bottom from Tuesday which, if memory serves, was at $75.77. Brent $82.94 off a penny.
