| Turmoil is rarely good for the bottom line. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are joining Washington’s anti-Islamic State air strikes within the borders of neighboring OPEC member Iraq. Fellow OPEC partner Nigeria just barely dodged an Ebola scare, while founding member Iran remains under sanctions aimed to curb its nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile, Russia, which last year produced an estimated 10.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, doesn’t look set to extricate itself from Ukraine any time soon. Much of the oil-producing world is in turmoil, yet OPEC prices have fallen almost 20 percent since June. The reasons for this are complex, but include significant increases in the U.S. production of shale oil—also known as “tight oil”—over the past few years, which have eroded the American demand for imported oil...............................................Full Article: Source
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