Saudi Arabia reluctant to pull back Opec export volumes

Opec’s heavyweight is no longer prepared to bear the brunt of the group’s cuts. Losing on price and volume share is to be avoided at all costs, writes Bill Farren-Price

The collapse in oil prices in October has brought the oil market’s focus firmly back on Opec and its dominant producer Saudi Arabia, the one country within the organisation whose size and credibility enable it to put a new floor under oil prices. At the time of writing, speculation about a possible price war resulting from a supposed reluctance by Riyadh to pull back export volumes is the dominant theme on trading floors. Some of the tactical messaging by the Gulf’s oil superpower certainly seems to suggest there is no urgency in Riyadh to pull the oil market out of its nosedive by cutting output. But while there is a list of good reasons why a new output deal will be tough to deliver, you w