Last week OPEC conducted meetings with a coalition of partners that have worked together to limit oil production since 2016. It was widely reported that the group hoped to come to an agreement to reduce oil production by an additional 1.5 million barrels per day (BPD). The meetings came in the wake of reports from the IHS Markit Crude Oil Market Service that Q1 2020 world oil demand will decline by 3.8 million BPD from a year earlier. This will represent the largest quarterly demand decline ever reported. But this time one of the key partners of the coalition, Russia, refused to participate in additional cuts. They had previously signaled their resistance to additional production cuts in February when OPEC floated the idea. Oil prices plunged by nearly 10% following this surprise move by Russia. It had been widely expected they would go along with the plan, because the […]