In an interview given to Herman Wang from S&P Global Platts, Dr Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, comments on Saudi Arabia’s growing rapprochement with Russia and Trump, which seems to cause an existential problem for OPEC.
Dr Nakhle believes that Saudi Arabia still needs OPEC, for several reasons including:
- The uncertain outlook of its relationship with Russia and Trump.
- Saudi Arabia has a more powerful impact on the global oil market through OPEC, which supplies around 40% of global oil (the country provides around 13%). The OPEC+ was/is needed because the shale challenge is so big.
- If Saudi Arabia was to leave OPEC, it would have done so long time ago.