OPEC pumping oil at record levels ahead of crunch meeting

Record levels of fracking in the US also making oil production over capacity.

Planet Earth: You're Trumped!

Record levels of fracking in the US? Really? I think rig counts are half or less what they were in 2014. They have risen slightly from their lows, but that is a far cry from "record levels." Want to explain that Rana, or were you just riffing?

Yeah. Look. The IEA is NOW saying that they are posting their forecasts based on what OPEC does. They are changing their tune from their earlier forecast of a couple of months ago, of course, now that it looks wrong. I was right again. What they REALLY said before was that production was going to peak ... it hasn't..... and start to decline in 2017... it won't. And now they are pinning their prediction to OPEC talks in 2017. Thanks IEA. So they are saying that if production goes down, it will go down. These guys are real pros.

You know, I said it then and I will say it again. I don't think so. There is a lot of oil overhang still, but governments that need oil money need it MORE now than they did before. There is a strong incentive to pump as much as they can now. And now, with OPEC talks looming, there is even MORE incentive to pump more because 1. allocated production levels will be set from actual production levels and 2. once OPEC sets up limits, your revenues will be limited, so you better grab that cash while you have the chance. Therefore I submit that the more OPEC talks about limits, the more incentive some nations have to pump as much as they can before limits go into effect. And that will be especially true of OPEC members.

Should be interesting to watch. We will be surprised someday, but I don't think it will be soon.

The Saudis may well keep on pumping if they find Trump too **crude.

So, why isn't the price of gas down in Japan?

And why is a LHR-Berlin flight 500 euros for a 20th November departure?

Lots of price gouging going on and little demand....