Can Opec help manage the ongoing crude price rally with its spare capacity?
The group needs to reassure consumers as to how much spare capacity it holds and that it is ready to use it in an emergency Oil made the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Under him, an unprecedented co-operation with Opec was forged. Now the oil exporters’ organisation has to manage the market turmoil unleashed by his military offensive in Ukraine. Mr Putin was plucked from apparent obscurity in August 1999 to become prime minister, then acting president. He came to office a year after Russia’s disastrous economic panic that was triggered by the Asian financial crisis and the slump in oil prices. Opec production cuts meant that, by then, oil prices were reviving solidly. Russia agreed to participate in managing output but did not follow this commitment. Prices were given a further boost after George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, then soared under the stimulus of the Chinese boom up to mid-2008. The all-time record of $147 per barrel in July 2008 would be almost $200 today, allowing for ...