Qatar to withdraw from OPEC as of January | Hacker News Reader

Qatar to withdraw from OPEC as of January

cnbc.com

58 pointsbgeils25 comments

So could someone flesh this out a bit more?

Does this say more about Qatar or Opec?

My completely uninformed guess would be that smaller producers are better off outside the cartel. They can then set them selves up to be counter cyclical. Pumping when others aren't and visa versa. Without moving the supply needle very much, and so getting better prices. I guess they don't have much influence in Opec, and Opec aren't worried because they aren't a big producer.

It's mostly about Qatar, which recently had a very public falling out with Saudi Arabia and is currently being blockaded by most of its neighbours, who also compose the bulk of OPEC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Qatar_diplomat...

Also, while Qatar is a huge natural gas producer, their oil production is by Gulf standards small and this is unlikely to sway the global price much. It is, however, yet another step in OPEC's slow slide to irrelevance, since Russia and now, thanks to fracking, the US produce huge quantities of oil outside the cartel.

Thanks.

Isn't Russia quite closely aligned with Opec though.

I can not imagine what will happen in the gulf region if global demand for oil starts going down.

i've lived in kuwait as recently as 2017 - there is a general air of despair over all industry. when the oil prices took their recent nosedive, all projects were cancelled and the country took a dive into austerity. The projects were re-started in other forms when the oil prices went up but the writing on the wall became clear to everyone. lots of educated well off kuwaitis have purchased homes abroad for "re-settlement",nearby europe being a popular choice(italy in particular).

i imagine war,chaos and a re-ordering of nation boundaries is going to be the inevitable result of the decline of oil.

If oil is the only resource then why would boundaries get redrawn? Saddam wanted Kuwait for the oil reserves and not much else.

Many gulf countries rely on foreign labor for “ work locals aren’t willing to do”. They can drastically cut back on that and reduce the local pop by half or more in some cases.

For the same reason, but the opposite direction? Does Kuwait (in this example) have an identity strong enough that it out lasts its oil reserves, or does it faction back out among its neighbors as migrant workers disburse "home" (or the next richest country or what have you)?

Might not require wars to be fought, but might still mean borders get redrawn in the gulf region when the economics shift.

i believe the boundaries were drawn by the british, hence the straight lines.

Also it's a desert border.

As one of the Arab leaders said, something along the lines of "my grandfather rode a camel, my dad a Jeep, I a Mercedes. But my grandson will ride a camel."

It might remain livable.

I'm more concerned about what will happen in the gulf region if global demand doesn't go down. Temperature-wise, I mean.

I'm more concerned about what will happen in the gulf region if global demand doesn't go down.

Qatar won't be too concerned - if the LNG market stays stable ;)

I think Iran and Venezuela should also quit OPEC and sell Oil in non-US dollars.

Switch to which currency? Roubles?

In bitcoin :)

Perfect. OPEC cannot control anything already and cannot even coordinate its own members. It does not make any sense to stay in the organization.

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