OPEC and Allies, Defying Trump, Agree to Cut Oil Output to Prop Up Prices

Look, there's a certain type of individual who is taken in by Trump's act and there is a small group of world leaders who blow smoke up his pants leg because they know they can manipulate him. But mostly Trump is seen by the world as all weak bluster while they laugh at him and his absurd tweets. No one listens to him.

Better yet, just sell your car.

So now we know what that hug in Buenos Aires was all about.

So siding with the Saudi Prince got Trump what exactly?

Trump's silent enablers -- corporate America and the billionaire boys club -- got their budget-busting tax giveaway. Trump was their perfect foil, the rodeo clown who distracts the raging bull while the tossed rider runs for cover. They didn't think he'd further enrage the bull and cause more havoc and harm. Now they're facing a trade war with the biggest market in the world, a spitting contest with our allies, and total disarray with the global economy. Their taxpayer-propped bull market has turned into a sharp-clawed bear that's cost billionaires all their easy gains, mooting any tax offset from market losses. Then the stable boy genius curries up to Saudi Prince Bonesaw by pleading reasonable doubt because of a sudden onset of hearing loss in the Oval Office staff. "Maybe he did, maybe he didn't." Of course any creature with even a single fold in their primitive brain would have figured out that if Crown Prince Cutthroat casually murders Khashoggi, a close friend and advisor to the Saudi Royals, why would he do Trump any favors when the Saudis can get him to bark, fetch and rollover without any treats? If George Will (Khashoggi's right-minded WashPost colleague) declared George H.W. Bush a "lapdog," what does that make Trump? An old toothless pit bull in an orange wig that's never been housebroken? For Trump it's just deserts in an unjust dessert.

So Trump humiliates himself and our country by supporting the murderer Saudi Prince ABS, and ABS rewards Trump by partnering with Russia to slash global oil production. As shown by the thugs, liars and thieves Trump has hung around with his whole life, he is no judge of character and has none himself.

Little doubt that, in part, Trump has looked the other way on the Saudi contract murder to get favorable action in situations like this. Too bad, Donald, it's all unraveling--with the most unsavory regimes in the world now backing away from your own cynical regime.

Trump ignores the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the famine and deaths in Yemen for cheap gasoline, then Saudi Arabia ignores him anyway. If it didn't affect so many innocent people, I'd say good comeuppance to Trump.

Saudi knows that Trump is mute when it comes to following up on his threats, so they go do as they wish. We pay.

The Saudi’s and Russia ginned up production to make up for Iran’s sanctioned oil then Donald gave out so many exemptions there was a glut. That’s the price of being his pals. A deserved but unintentional punch to the gut.

Once again the President of the United States kisses up to a foreign despot on the grossly exaggerated promise of some future transactional benefit. Next, the despot ignores Trump's entreaties and sticks it to the American public in a very present and tangible fashion. Did I miss anything?

Oh dear!! It seems to be slightly more difficult than planned for President Trump to force everyone to play the Make America Great Again game. The rogues and vagabonds keep having individual thoughts, perhaps something not often leveled at the White House. Disclaimer.... no murderous thoughts or actions are condoned by this post.

Trump took false credit for when the Dow passed 26,000 but now... not so much. Trump took credit for low oil prices and he can't understand economics, supply-demand or international affairs so that's silly too. I'm surprised DJT Sr. hasn't taken credit for a brighter sun during the day or the "very legal, very cool" ice cream industry. Sadly 45 lies so much Americans and the world no longer bothering to listen to him.

The U.S. oil, many shale based, will not be profitable below $45 or so, especially if you factor into the balance sheets, many of which are highly leveraged. So Trump is shooting America in the foot if he really thinks ultra low oil is beneficial. Saudis actually did that back in 2015 trying to kill a lot of shale oil producers by flooding the market with cheap oil. And many went Chapter 11. You have to wonder if Trump is that dumb though. Or he is doing the big guys a favor by killing the wildcatters with cheap oil. The Exxons and Chevrons of the world will have staying power with a strong balance sheet and an integrated production system. Weak oil will benefit their downstream petrochemical processing. The Koch Industries will be bigger by buying up the assets in bankruptcy court instead of open market. And you folks thought Trump was doing that to make America great!

After decades of doing business in the Middle East, I know that this a mere game and I know what will happen next: Saudi Arabia wants to play good with the US in order to make the US forget about the little issue of being a terrorist state and having a murderer in the drive seat, forget the king, MbS is pulling all strings by now. At the same time, the kingdom needs all the money it can get to pay its people in order to avoid an open civil war which will be the end of the House of Saud - Gaddhafi style. Russia wants a higher oil price to pay for its reorganizing the social welfare and pension plans and to fund its Syrian war activities that are a real but necessary drain of its finances. And Trump wants a cheap argument to prove his "skills" at making a deal that will lower oil prices. Well, Trump lost against the economic requirements for now. What will happen is that the "bad guys" on the block, Iran and Venezuela, will sell oil despite any sanctions there might be as they too need every penny they can get. Which will drive the oil price down again and the games will start anew. And Trump will shout insults at the Iranians who will not get out of the market as he wants them to despite the fact that he needs them to stay in the market in order to keep prices low. "Oil prices are not made in the market but in the fever dreams of politicians playing a game of power" as a former Iranian oil minister so aptly said once.

OPEC and Russia SHOULD ignore Trump. Trump's clumsy meddling in the oil market with his sanctions, egging on to oversupply, and then double cross of the Saudis by issuing waivers destabilized what had been a balanced market that US producers, OPEC and Russia could live with. It's hard to guess what Trump's objective is, but each tweet has been doing serious damage to U.S. producers and oilfield services companies, which represent a large number of jobs and most of the economy in many states.

It’s never been easy for OPEC to remain unified. We’ll see if they can this time. But clearly they have little reason to dance to our tune and would be crazy to put our interests ahead of theirs. So let’s see Donald Trump convince our oil industry to keep their prices lower than the world market. What, you say oil is fungible and we are part of the world market. Where is the loyalty to Donald Trump? Surely our domestic oil suppliers will sacrifice their profits for him.

The only thing that keeps Trump's approval rating high (among his base) is the relative strength of the economy...and the low price of oil/gasoline. Should either of these items change (economy goes into the dump and gas prices increase)...just watch all of his supporters (including the Christian right)...look for manifold reasons to 'dump Trump'.

So, Trump is complicit in the Kashoggi murder cover up and he got nothing for it, or at least nothing that we know about at this point. Our addiction to oil is our fentanyl. Eventually, it will kill the planet as we know it.

Just maybe, with a world awash in oil, it's a bad idea to kill all the sage grouse and polar bears? Polar Bear Rugs and mounted grouse for the 1% don't cut it as a reason.

The reason behind the "high five"between Putin and M.B.S. seems very obvious now. Our master deal maker just got played.

This is why Russia was high-fiving Saudi Arabia...

I read and reread the article. There was no total listed for OPEC output against which to measure the 1.2 million barrel reduction proposed. We learned Saudi Arabia itself produced 11.1 MM in November, Russia 11.4 in October, and no data for the rest of OPEC. So we can only guess that total OPEC output was, say, 25 up to 30 MM barrels per day. Against that amount, a cut of 1.2 MM barrels seems like trivia. It would be about 4%. Why did the report not include the OPEC total and then evaluate the statements that the 1.2 MM cut was so large? Why don't the Times editors insist on adequate obvious data presentation for an intelligent article?

We'll see how many then cheat on the limits as often happens,

I guess that high five between Putin and MBS at the G-20 in Buenos Aires meant a lot more than just "hey!" Trump is played once again.

opec is broken and the members know it. What else is there needed to know?

If we had initiated a solar-smart grid new deal, investing the 1.5 trillion dollars the GOP instead gave away to the 1% and corps to invest in useless conveniences (you really need to use that electric scooter?), we could reduce our oil needs by half, build a 21st Century workforce, disentangle ourselves from despicable oligarchs like Russia and Saudi Arabia, and slow climate change. Instead the GOP championed a man whose primary interest is enriching himself and promoting the anti-democratic values he shares with Putin and MBS. You did it again, GOP!

It used to be so expensive to fill my truck with gas when gas was well over $4 a gallon that $100 was the max I could charge in a single fuel transaction and the needle went to about 3/4. Now gas is close to half that amount and it feels like I’m driving my old Datsun. I drive my truck for business about half the time and the rest is personal. The cheap gas is great for my pocket book but terrible for the environment. Please please please OPEC raise the price of gas and oil. I really don’t need to drive as much as I do and I’m always fascinated to watch the big trucks on the freeway deliver those massive wind turbines. We need more of this type of traffic on the Interstate then my truck. We all need to look for ways to decrease our carbon footprint and the greed of the Russians and Middle East is a great way to convince me to maybe invest in a smaller vehicle or look for more creative way to help solve these problems rather than line their greedy pockets.

Three thoughts on this: One, a limited increase in oil prices may well do all of us a favor, as that will dampen consumption, and decrease CO2 emissions. Two, rising gas prices will increase the demand for electric cars, a technology that the US is currently leading in, so that can be good for our economy, and exports. Three, increased oil prices will also make domestic oil and gas exploration and production more attractive. Let's remember that the last big slump in oil prices was provoked by the Saudis' flooding the market with the stated intent to render US shale production uncompetitive. That sort of worked, and led to a wave of cuts and bankruptcies of shale oil-prospecting and producing companies here. However, it also make Saudi Arabia into a large net- borrower of cash. I guess they may like Trump, but they like having money even more.

They can cut all they want; higher prices will only accelerate the trend of lower oil consumption both here and abroad. Gasoline at four or five dollars a gallon will push people toward hybrids and electric cars. Combine this with the worldwide concern for climate change and I believe within fifty years (maybe less) the internal combustion engine will be a thing of the past.

Fine by me. We don’t need to promote use of fossil fuels with cheap prices, on top of the Trump administration gutting environmental protections and pulling out of the Paris accord. Also a nice reminder for Trump that he cannot dictate the fate of the entire world economy one reckless tweet at a time.

Both OPEC and American frackers are running one step ahead of the bill collector. Alternatives nibbling at their market are not helping. This could end up as an ugly race to the bottom.

Seen this for almost 50 years - this is nothing more than an OPEC PR stunt, to jack up prices short term. There will almost certainly be no falloff in production. Besides, aren't we the world leader in oil production.

It will be interesting to see how much cheating there will be on these production cuts. The parallels to the early 1980s are many and this is going to be a sure test of their discipline. For the U.S. this is just business as usual. If Saudi Arabia keeps on cutting production in the coming months, we might be back in 1984. That there is now once again a $10 differential between the WTI and the Brent (and the Louisiana Light) is also a little disconcerting as this might be a sign that the swelling supply in the U.S. Midwest is not hitting the global markets yet due to transportation issues.

A more meaningful way to express the reduction in OPEC output would be as a percentage, rather than as the number of barrels. 800,000 barrels sounds like a huge number, but only represents about 7% of the 11.4 million barrel October OPEC production number.

Export of oil and oil products from the United States should be contingent on the U.S. having access to oil within the this country. Profit of oil companies should not come at the expense of American consumers. Meanwhile, Russia and Saudi Arabia are in a no-win situation. If they keep oil in the ground, they run the risk of wind, solar, and electric cars turning their one-trick pony economy collapsing. When they overshoot production, the income generated falls, eating into their foreign reserves. But, first and foremost, U.S. oil producers should be required to supply America first. Excess supply should not be exported until the U.S. has at least one year supply. Patriotism first, profits second.

Once Putin formally came on board as an ally to OPEC, Trump's bullying days over this issue were over.

So the "stable genius" gets played again.

I love my electric car

What happened, Trumpy?? You promised the Saudi’s would keep oil prices low after you gave them a pass on Khashoggi’s murder.

No fair! We let them kill a WaPo reporter they didn't like; I thought we at least got cheap gas out of the deal! What's important of course is that the Trumps and Kushners still make out on the deal...

FUSION !!!!

For someone who knows more than anyone else, he sure doesn't know much.

But................ Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia and Russia, how can they do this to him?

Whaddya know? Trump can't rule the world by tweet after all. Strange the hostility pouring from other Times readers toward other nations doing the obvious to protect their interests. Don't like higher oil prices? Drive less and put your thermostat down.

I thought that Traitor Trump's disparagement of the CIA and his sucking up to Prince Jared's buddy, the Saudi murderer, was going to give us $1 a gallon gas for our SUVs and pickup trucks. What's going on?

It is hard to tell what Trump is or is not involved in. He is so interconnected and disconnected that I often wonder if the plan isn't to take down the United States.

Is this another self-proclaimed Trump win?

So Trump's new "allies" the murderous Saudis and Putin are so glad to repay his "trust" with help for the USA... Sure.... A fool, as well as a corrupt bungler

So much for sucking up to Saudi and Putin.

I wonder what the WH Fool-in-Office will have to say after his "Russian owner" and his Saudi "highly-likely" murderer protege stab America's interest in the back with this OPEC deal. Does he not realize they are outsmarting and outplaying him every second of his incapable "Art of the deal" presidency? Such a buffoon Trump always has been, still is, and will be.

Trump who? The man had no influence with intelligent people.

So I guess Trump's denial of the Saudi Crown Prince's direct involvement in the Khashoggi murder was all for naught?