
The Oil Price Is Now Controlled by Just Three Men - jonbaer
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-18/bin-salman-trump-and-putin-control-the-oil-price-now
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abhinai
Am I the only one that finds the title of this article a little bit
misleading? These three men represent giant organizations, are responsible to
several interests and do not really "control" oil prices in the sense of
"fixing" the price.

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onetimemanytime
Putin is in almost absolute control of Russia. Sure, an oligarch or a powerful
faction may rebel but Putin has other ways of making them whole.

Do we even doubt that Salman is the absolute ruler of SA?

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jpatokal
That's not what the previous poster was referring to. "Controlled by Just
Three Men" sounds like there's a smoky back room where Joe, Bob and Fred meet
weekly to collude on oil pricing. Instead the three men are heads of nation
states, each of whom can certainly _influence_ the oil price, but they're not
cooperating to fix it.

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onetimemanytime
We're going back and forth, but yeah, Trump can increase production with a
phone call. Maybe threaten or promise a favor to SA. A $500 per bbl is not
good for OPEC long term, so there's a lot more than let's just increase the
price.

Even in USA with the three branches, the US President has a LOT of power and
if he promises to pass a bill, he has a lot of lever$ he can use to assure the
votes are there.

So, yeah, these three men can control the oil price if their interests align.

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winningcontinue
I have a hard time comprehending this article. The three people in charge of
Saudia Arabia, Russia and US produce more oil than OPEC the author says. But
then SA is in OPEC, and the three don't produce a significant amount more than
OPEC combined. What is the entire gist of writing this article other than
there's an unproven conspiracy.

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pulse7
I think the author is saying: "OPEC can no longer set high oil prices, because
US, Russia and SA produce more oil than OPEC combined." But on the other hand
the year 2008 has shown that it is not the US president who is setting the oil
price, but the oil company executives [1].

[1]
[https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/21/news/economy/oil_hearing/in...](https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/21/news/economy/oil_hearing/index.htm?cnn=yes)

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sys_64738
Saudi Arabia is in OPEC so the gist of the article is moot.

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jpatokal
OPEC is notorious for having members agree to various things on paper and then
doing something else entirely.

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anticensor
Then it needs to be replaced.

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pg_bot
If we apply ideas from game theory, you will find out that cartels are
naturally unstable. I don't think you would be able to replace OPEC with
another cartel even if you wanted to . (No one outside the newly formed cartel
would welcome a new cartel.)

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anticensor
You replace a cartel by a free trade organisation, not by another cartel.

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fjsolwmv
Free trade is what causes cartels. The is no "you" who gets to control the
world economy

