Opec ready to stay the course after slow progress
Prices need to fall again if the group's strategy to regain market share is to work
After the doors are shut and the Opec ministers take their seats around the horseshoe table in Vienna's Helferstorfer Strasse on 5 June, their decision should come swiftly: do nothing and keep pumping. Low prices have brought pain for Opec's producers. The group earned $730billion in net oil export revenues in 2014, down 11% on the year before, says the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and revenue could fall to $380bn this year. The slump has left some members, like Venezuela, perilously close to bankruptcy. It's been a high price to pay for its strategy to recoup market share. On the surface, though, the plan to let the market drift lower and force higher-cost rival producers offlin
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
