It’s Time to Scrap OPEC+
Time is running out for OPEC and its partners to manage the oil market disruption caused by the coronavirus in an orderly way.
It’s getting crowded in here.
Photographer: Markus Zahradnik/OPECJust when OPEC needs all the agility it can muster in the face of an oil demand shock of uncertain severity and unknown duration, it’s bogged down in protracted negotiations and a 60-year-old mechanism for deciding output allocations that’s far too cumbersome in a time of crisis.
The 13 oil-exporting nations in the cartel, and their partners in what’s called OPEC+, have to be able to react quickly to the rapidly-changing world around them. Instead, they are locked in a debate over whether they should even meet, and what they should agree on if they do. By the time they get answers to those questions, it may already be too late.