Qatar Says It Will Withdraw From OPEC

The U.S. is now the top oil producer. Canada is not too far behind. OPEC is in name only these days with the Saudi and Iran being deadly enemy to each other. OPEC has always been a charade anyway. The MbS-Putin handshake really says it all. OPEC is dead for all intents and purposes

I lived and worked in Qatar for 3 years in it's gas industry - making LNG. I even rode a Qatari tanker delivering a cargo to India through Straits of Hormuz. An amazing trip. Qatar's withdrawal is just symbolic of our increasing domination in the oil markets - with America already number 1 in the world and in next 10 years - producing almost same as OPEC oil. Say what folks commenting below say - this POTUS pushing for deregulation and removing export restrictions (sure, theough Congress) and now Alaska perhaps - is one of many reasons for American fominance. Even Saudis have hinted that OPEC may have run it's course as a cartel because oil pricing is not in it's hand any more. And this cartel having first lost Indonesia and now Qatar - is really just a one country cartel - Saudis. And one thing Saudi royal family does not want is to be blamed for low prices if their economy suffers. Interestingly, one item of history. The so called Arab oil embargo was hatched at a Sheraton hotel in downtown Doha which still stands. But it has no historical marker.

The Qataris are certainly independent-minded people, refusing to subject themselves to Saudi bullying. Their withdrawal after 57 years of Opec membership may well be linked to a political and economic boycott imposed in June 2017 by Saudi Arabia, Opec’s largest member and its de facto leader, and three other Arab states – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. They imposed a trade and travel embargo over allegations that Doha supports terrorism and cooperates with Iran. Qatar pumps about 600,000 barrels a day, compared to the Saudis’ 11 million, so the impact on the cartel’s production was small. Doha would abide by its commitments like any other non-Opec oil producer, like Russia, which has gained much clout alongside Saudi Arabia in setting oil policy. Qatar’s leaving Opec could mean a more tense relationship with the Saudi-led coalition. If other counties start to follow suit, there would be no control over supply or demand, and each individual country could just do what they like.

"The energy minister said the decision wasn’t related to a Saudi-led boycott on Qatar." Oh sure. Gotta love the language of diplomacy, if they say "I love you" it means "I will cut your throat later in the dark."

So. there is a smart guy in Qatar.

Bro handshake in Buenos Aires aside, isn't a buried topic here Russia shifting alliance toward Saudi Arabia instead of Iran (whose interests are bound up with those of Qatar)? The US has maintained a habitual and mostly mindless enmity toward Iran while the 9/11 terrorists had their strongest ties to Saudi Arabia. US acceptance toward the Saudi regime has been demonstrated in the most bloody fashion possible with the Khashoggi murder, but no matter what concessions or compromises Iran offers, it never seems to be enough to normalize relations. So for Russia, cuddling up with the Saudis is a much better way to push the US out of the picture. If we don't soon get rid of the Great Orange Baby in the White House with the Red Trees, we won't have any allies left but the island backwater that Britain seems hellbent on becoming.

While the long term outlook for gas seems to be good, the rapid changes in electric transportation can make a large dent in oil markets within ten years. What most folk do not know about electric cars is the reliability, the lack of engine maintenance, and the cost of transportation changes everything. Once you drive an EV, you probably will not want to drive another polluter. If we paid for the electricity our 2015 VW e-Golf would cost us 3 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla Model S, 4 cents/mile. But our cars are charged by power we put into the grid from the PV solar system on the house roof, which also powers the household. The solar system was put in because we are eco-freaks, and expected a 15-17 year payback, but the first EV took it down to 3 1/2 years. It is free to us now, for household and two cars. The cars do not need oil or filters or changes or leaks, no transmission troubles, no tune-ups, no emissions checks, no trips to the gas stations. The world changed a few years ago but most folk are not yet aware that alternative energy is not only possible, not only practical, but profitable.

Hurrah for the rest of the non-opec world!!!!!!!!!

Politics are involved in the sense that now is good time to cut bait and run. When you have closely aligned Saudi Arabian and Russian policies aligned against Qatar and Iran with a would-be US authoritarian desperately seeking a piece of the action, now is a good time to cash in your chips and reorient towards LNG and Iran. Qatar will keep the US Air Force base though as contingency plan though. We wouldn't want another Kuwait, would we?

Qatar's economy depends on the South Pars natural gas field, allegedly the largest in the world, which it shares with Iran. Qatar's withdrawal from OPEC will be a boon to Iran. I expect that Qatar will now be a conduit for Iranian natural gas sales, as a way of bypassing Trump's ridiculous imposition of sanctions on Iran. There is certainly more than one way to skin Trump's cat.

$63 per barrel? It was $54 a couple of weeks ago when donnie said MBS had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s death and the lowering price of oil was his penance and a boon to the American economy. The press doesn’t even bother to call him on his lies.

Good old Putin. The article says, "Saudi Arabia and Russia, which is not an OPEC member, have largely been dictating terms with regard to production since then. That has irritated other OPEC members, especially Iran." They would both love WW3 because their Robber Barons would get even wealthier. Thanks to Quatar for leaving the cartel. Now WE THE PEOPLE must do everything in our power to prevent The Con Don from helping Putin and the Saudi Arabia "prince" from destroying OUR world.

How did our oil get under their sand.

It took little Qatar to lead the way to sanity. Although Natural Gas is still a pollutant it is far better then petroleum & other fossil fuels, like coal.If only we could convince Trump, one of the great polluters of the world.

Possible telling of the modern economic/political story of Qatar: 1. pearl diving pays the bills 2. discover huge gas reserves shared with Iran 3. wealth from regional exports 4. start exploring international relations outside Saudi Arabia's orbit 5. discovery of LNG/ability to ship gas anywhere 6. further develop international relations outside Saudi Arabia's orbit 7. political/economic ramifications, including diplomatic rupture from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE in 2017 Qatar leaving OPEC in 2018 does reflect the economic reality that in Qatar gas is so vastly more abundant and lucrative than oil. But the minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi is misleading in saying this is not connected to politics. Everything is connected to politics in the Middle East. With their decision to leave OPEC, Qatar continues its decades-long trend from Saudi Arabian satellite to more of a rich, independent, diplomatically somewhat neutral player. The news here is not so much OPEC's future - Qatar is a minor producer by itself, no huge effect on the cartel unless its actions inspire other OPEC members - but that Qatar is choosing to continue its international course away from Saudi orbit even after 2017's diplomatic ruptures. No detente yet. What to watch for now: 1. Political responses from Saudi Arabia/others 2. Any chatter about other countries leaving OPEC In watching for followups, as always it is helpful to assume that the most government officials' #1 priority is staying in power.

West must keep its focus on democracy and transparency in Middle east if it like to help that part of the world (Middle East) to become less feudal, more civilized and less of a global problem, and exporter (mainly financier) of Islamic extremism worldwide. Appeasing various Arab dictators might be beneficial for short term but ultimately would do far more harm to the Western countries and also would cost far more to them and the world. US and EU must support Qutar in this Saudi-UAE led crisis. Then west must remain neutral in such middle eastern crisis engineered by Saudi -UAE led Sunni Muslims or Iran led Shias. OPEC used to be the golden goose of these Islamic extremist regimes and need to be made redundant to allow them to foresee their future when oil would not their main source of income.

It used to be Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo's OPEC. When poor-rich countries decided to unite in a cartel in order to have equal footing with rich developed oil consumer countries. It worked for many years. Now is Saudi and Russia's OPEC. And I agree with the authors of this article when they point us in the direction of the politically charged decision of Qatar. With Qatar leaving the OPEC and the facto non-existence of Venezuela as an oil producer, there is very little OPEC left. Inviting Mexico (the new President would accept such invitation for geopolitical reasons), would not cut it.

This makes total sense. Natural gas has long been the source of Qatar's wealth. When I was there two years ago, no one talked about oil at all. And Qatar is cultivating its relationships in the west more than its own region.

The sooner we walk away from carbon based energy and fully embrace our renewable future, the sooner we can leave these loathsome regimes alone to pound sand. There is so much money and graft in the existing order that it seems impossible to do. Is it a fantasy that the desert kingdoms could be turned into solar farms powering distillation and desalinization of water that would be used to make the desert bloom? Will the Chinese do that in Sahara Africa?