Excess inventories, weakening demand growth, and oil prices some $15 a barrel lower than this time last year left OPEC and its allies little choice but to roll over their production cuts into 2020. Although no one at OPEC officially speaks about targeting higher oil prices, the ultimate goal of the cartel and its de facto leader Saudi Arabia is a higher price of oil and, consequently, higher revenues for the petro states whose economies rely on oil exports. By aiming for higher oil prices, however, OPEC is inadvertently helping rival non-OPEC production, especially U.S. shale. U.S. oil production has been smashing records in recent months, but the pace of America’s production growth has noticeably started to slow this year in response to the 40-percent oil price plunge in the fourth quarter of 2018. If OPEC’s cuts manage to draw down inventories and if a resolution to the U.S.-China […]