The Oil Price Is Now Controlled by Just Three Men

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-18/bin-salman-trump-and-putin-control-the-oil-price-now

by jonbaer • 8 years ago

49 21 8 years ago

bloomberg.com

sys_647382• 8 years ago

Saudi Arabia is in OPEC so the gist of the article is moot.

jpatokal2• 8 years ago

OPEC is notorious for having members agree to various things on paper and then doing something else entirely.

anticensor2• 8 years ago

Then it needs to be replaced.

sys_647382• 8 years ago

OPEC is game theory in action.

abhinai2• 8 years ago

Am I the only one that finds the title of this article a little bit misleading? These three men represent giant organizations, are responsible to several interests and do not really "control" oil prices in the sense of "fixing" the price.

onetimemanytime3• 8 years ago

Putin is in almost absolute control of Russia. Sure, an oligarch or a powerful faction may rebel but Putin has other ways of making them whole.

Do we even doubt that Salman is the absolute ruler of SA?

buboard• 8 years ago

If anything he is by far the weakest of the three. Can't imagine him beginning a veritable price war with the US (or russia) and not ending up inside suitcases.

jpatokal2• 8 years ago

That's not what the previous poster was referring to. "Controlled by Just Three Men" sounds like there's a smoky back room where Joe, Bob and Fred meet weekly to collude on oil pricing. Instead the three men are heads of nation states, each of whom can certainly influence the oil price, but they're not cooperating to fix it.

abhinai2• 8 years ago

Neither Putin, nor Saudi king can do "absolutely whatsoever" they want on a whim. They represent huge organizations and still have to keep several people/interest groups happy.

danpalmer• 8 years ago

Bloomberg gives bonuses to journalists based on the amount their articles move the market, so it’s not that surprising unfortunately.

bad_news_bears• 8 years ago

Wait, what? Could you elaborate on this?

dogpuncher• 8 years ago

There's a fair whack of poetic license in the headline, but isn't there always?

The idea that you can get a meaningful take on a story just from the title seems a bit lazy to me.

I reckon, having read the article, that the headline is reasonable.

winningcontinue• 8 years ago

I have a hard time comprehending this article. The three people in charge of Saudia Arabia, Russia and US produce more oil than OPEC the author says. But then SA is in OPEC, and the three don't produce a significant amount more than OPEC combined. What is the entire gist of writing this article other than there's an unproven conspiracy.

pulse7• 8 years ago

I think the author is saying: "OPEC can no longer set high oil prices, because US, Russia and SA produce more oil than OPEC combined." But on the other hand the year 2008 has shown that it is not the US president who is setting the oil price, but the oil company executives [1].

[1] https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/21/news/economy/oil_hearing/in...

The Oil Price Is Now Controlled by Just Three Men

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