The oil price decline of 2014 upended the geopolitical chessboard. And as Bloomberg reports, market and industry observers will be closely watching in the coming year how three major players compete to recover and dominate play: OPEC, Vladimir Putin and U.S. shale drillers.
Oil’s international benchmark price dropped as much as 49% in 2014. Those looking for a quick rebound may be disappointed, as world consumption growth slowed to the least since 2009, U.S. companies pumped more than they have since the 1980s and a price war broke out among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“It’s a turning point in the way people perceive OPEC, that this so-called cartel is not really driving prices,” says Jeff Colgan, a professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies who researches the geopolitics of energy. “The real story is going to be about the fracking industry. How much pain can North American producers take?”
Among the biggest questions about oil markets for 2015 is whether or not OPEC can hold together as the price dives. Other big question marks include how the oil price will affect the shale boom in the US; how global demand will be affected; whether or not the U.S. will approve exports in the coming year; and if political instability will disrupt supply. Read the full story.
