“Traditionally, and long before the Arab uprisings, there have been divisions between OPEC members. Countries with small reserves tend to favour higher prices now, whereas those with large reserves may prefer to protect their future markets by maintaining lower prices to prevent oil-demand destruction,” notes Stevens.
“There are also divisions between pro- and anti-Western members, which have tended to replicate the division between those favouring pricing oil in dollars and those preferring an alternative currency such as the euro. Finally there is the division between countries that can easily produce more than their quotas and those struggling to meet their quotas.”
Stevens recalls that the oil price collapse of 1986 was reversed by Saudi Arabia and Iran working together, as was the 1998 collapse when King Abdullah decided good relations with Iran were more important for Saudi interests than insisting on pursuing an OPEC policy of non-cooperation with that country."
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