The oil market has already factored in an extension of the OPEC deal, with the working assumption that the cuts will be extended through the end of 2018. But what if OPEC disappoints and extends by a much shorter period of time, or worse, fails to agree to anything at all? Given all of the bullish rhetoric around the extension from the most powerful members of the deal (Saudi Arabia and Russia), an extension still seems the most likely outcome of the upcoming meeting in Vienna on November 30. But it is not a foregone conclusion. Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the stakes when he said last month that Russia was open to an extension through the end of next year. That became the baseline assumption in the oil market after other OPEC officials seemed to approve of the proposal. But Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Russia isn’t there […]