, Columnist
OPEC Swings to Panic Stations
A forecasting flip flop.
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OPEC's job of rebalancing the oil market has just got a lot more difficult. Not only is there a lot more oil in storage than it previously thought, but the group will need to make deeper output cuts to drain the excess.
A month ago OPEC oil ministers had probably read the International Energy Agency's monthly report with a sense of quiet confidence. It showed the world would need more oil than the group was producing for the rest of this year and next. And, as long as producers held their nerve -- and their discipline -- inventories would continue to fall. That is no longer the case.