Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries altered their behavior to limit the role of U.S. shale oil producers, a Norwegian paper found. “There is no consensus in the literature on how OPEC behavior affects crude oil prices,” a discussion paper published Friday by Pal Boug, Adne Cappelen and Anders Rygh Swensen with Statistics Norway read. “Some studies treat the oil market as a standard competitive market where OPEC plays no important role, whereas others argue that OPEC is a dominant producer with a competitive fringe or a cartel that adjusts its production to influence crude oil prices in a way that benefits the member states.” According to OPEC, its mission is to coordinate member state polices to […]