OPEC next gathers December 4 in Vienna, just over a year since Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced at the previous OPEC winter meeting the Saudi decision to let the oil market determine oil prices rather than to continue Saudi Arabia’s role of guarantor of $100+/bbl oil.
In virtually every science fiction novel or film, there is an evil corporation that dominates the world, from LexCorp in the Superman franchise to Weyland-Yutani in Alien. Their masterminds tend to hide their ambitions behind stretched smiles and a language of care. That is, until the story’s protagonist exposes their plans and saves the world by exposing the evil afoot.
Compare this to the real world. We have corporations with huge influence that do bad things, we are well aware of it and yet we continue to let it happen. Why?
The World Bank seeks to use its economic power to affect changes that can improve the environment. One recent push has involved setting a global standard regarding the practice of “flaring,” or burning off unwanted gas from oil wells.
By doing so, the World Bank hopes to end both a needless waste of resources and reduce the creation of greenhouse gasses. According to a report by the Associated Press, the World Bank’s executives hope to use their clout to influence the world’s largest oil-producing countries and companies to agree to the new policy.
By the time the yuan had weakened almost 2%, the slide in commodity prices was cited as evidence of the market’s concern that China was going to export deflation. This weighed on the dollar-bloc currencies, and the currencies of other commodity producers. Now the yuan has fallen further; oil prices are higher as are the dollar-bloc currencies and the main commodity producers in the emerging market space.
In the last quarter of 2014, in the face of possible oversupply, Saudi Arabia abandoned its traditional role as the global oil market’s swing producer and therefore it role as unofficial guarantor of existing ($100+ per barrel) prices.
Many oil companies had trimmed their budgets heading into 2015 to deal with lower oil prices. However, the rebound in April and May to $60 per barrel from the mid-$40s suggested that the severe drop was merely temporary.
But the collapse of prices in July – owing to the Iran nuclear deal, an ongoing production surplus, and economic and financial concerns in Greece and China – have darkened the mood. Now a prevailing sense that oil prices may stay lower for longer has hit the markets.
A flood of bearish news has pushed down oil prices to their lowest levels in months, with WTI nearing $45 per barrel and Brent flirting with sub-$50 territory.
With a bear market back, there is pessimism throughout the oil markets. Goldman Sachs is even predicting oil stays at $50 through 2020, a profoundly grim view of the state of oil supplies.
On the other hand, the contraction in U.S. shale is underway, so it is just a matter of time before the mismatch between supply and demand balances out.
Universal health coverage (UHC) has become a key agenda of policy makers in many countries. According to the definition of the World Health Organization (2010), UHC is the goal that “all people have access to health services and do not suffer financial hardship in paying for them.” In most developing countries, the goal of UHC is not easy to reach because large, resource-poor populations have limited access to health services.
In February 2014, Chinese President Xi Jingping declared his intent to do everything necessary for China to become a cyber power. Since then Xi and his government have been hyperactive on all relevant fronts: political, legal, economic, organisational and diplomatic. The Chinese leadership’s attention became even more focused on cyber issues in May 2014 when the United States indicted five Chinese military personnel for cyber espionage involving commercial secrets of US-based corporations.
Canada has given oil sands a dirty reputation, but a breakthrough, commercially viable technology has caught the eye of a former Exxon Mobil president who is putting it to use to clean up Utah’s billions of barrels of oil sands.
Imagine extracting high-quality oil out of the estimated 32 billion barrels buried in Utah’s oil sands, without creating the toxic wastelands that have resulted from oil sands projects in Western Canada. In addition, imagine doing it at a cost that can still turn a profit in today’s oil price slump.
