Oil Makes a Mockery of OPEC’s Big Plans
The cartel is weaker than ever.
By Mark Gongloff
July 2, 2019, 4:19 PM EDT
OPEC’s heft in the oil market isn’t what it once was.
OPEC’s heft in the oil market isn’t what it once was. Photographer: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images
Today’s Agenda
OPEC’s latest plan to boost oil prices is already struggling.
It’s Europe’s turn in the trade-war hot seat.
China turns to more lending to save auto sales.
Congress is overthinking data privacy.
Premiere Of Paramount Pictures' "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" - Red Carpet
This is OPEC, basically.Photographer: , Kevin Winter/Getty Images North America
OPEC+ Speaks, Nobody Listens
In the 2010 movie “Hot Tub Time Machine,” sad sacks enter a hot tub that is a time machine, travel to the past, and (spoiler alert) vastly improve their lives. OPEC’s time-travel efforts won’t be so fruitful.
The characters in that movie went back to 1986, which is roughly the last time OPEC was relevant. Now the cartel is reduced to desperately trying to keep a floor under oil prices. Since the start of 2017, OPEC+ (as it’s called when joined by oil-rich buddies such as Russia) has squeezed production to address a global oil glut. At a meeting this week it agreed to keep doing that. As Liam Denning notes, this barely lifted oil prices, highlighting OPEC+’s weakness. Today oil gave all those gains back and then some, with Nymex crude tumbling more than 4 percent to less than $58 a barrel