Why Would That Be?
Russia has announced that it probably won’t send a delegation to OPEC’s May 28th meeting. Think it might have something to do with Russia’s/Sechin’s repeated Lucy-and-the-football antics in late-08 early-09? You know, the oh-yes-we’ll cooperate with you OPEC; we support output cuts OPEC; we’re with you 100 percent OPEC BS, followed by no output cuts, and indeed by actions that resulted in Russia increasing output and exports slightly, while OPEC was making hefty cuts? Think that maybe OPEC sent via backchannels a “If you know what’s good for you don’t show your lying faces (plural) around Vienna again” message? It couldn’t be that, could it?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. OPEC seems to have taken that aphorism to heart.
The Arab OPEC oil states have been good at what they do for a long time now, they’ve managed their assets well in both boom and bust cycles. To them the Russians are desperate bit players who always cheat. I’m guessing like you that they were discouraged from coming.
It would be interesting to know the real condition of the Russian oil fields since Khodorkovsky’s demise. I bet it isn’t pretty.
Comment by penny — May 21, 2009 @ 6:09 pm