OPEC’s Strategies in an Expanding Energy Market
According to the US Energy Information Administration, 35 percent of gross US oil imports in 2014 came from OPEC countries. OPEC's role in supplying US oil consumption, as well as the organization's history of taking collective action to manipulate the price and supply of oil, make it a prime subject for study. Given OPEC's relevance to US energy security, how can we begin to predict how OPEC may interact with the oil markets of the future, as well as respond to shifting production and consumption trends within those markets? This article studies past OPEC production strategies, synthesizes a theory of OPEC production tendencies from past market interactions, and then applies these derived principles of OPEC production strategies to the contemporary global market.