Oil Price Alert - Sunday, March 8 at

dan_s · Post by **dan_s** » Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:19 pm

Note from Aegis Energy received at 5:04 PM CT

Saudi Arabia is reported to be lowering its official selling price into Europe by $8 (Brent crude is only near $45 as of Friday), a tactic that appears aimed at taking market share away from Russia. Russia and OPEC failed to reach a production-quota deal in last week’s OPEC meeting. OPEC members and partners will be free to produce at full rates on April 1. According to Bloomberg, the kingdom said it would immediately raise production next month.

Already it’s being called a "price war". Maybe it’s better described as maneuvering for market share in a time when demand has been crippled by Covid-19, and supply from OPEC+ may start to come back in April.
------------------------------------
MY TAKE: Maybe it is a way to get Russia back to negotiate a reasonable production cut. Saudi Arabia and Russia are VERY DEPENDENT on oil revenues.