IEA Says OPEC Battle for Oil Market Share Only Just Started

OPEC’s push to defend its share of the global oil market has just begun and the International Energy Agency said the group may further increase production, a strategy that caused prices to crash last year.

Gulf-based members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are boosting supplies as they escalate a battle to preserve sales volumes, the IEA said in its monthly market report. While the U.S. shale oil industry appears to have “blinked” in the face of OPEC’s move, countries including Russia are coping better than expected with low prices and the agency increased its overall 2015 estimate for non-OPEC production.