Unless oil prices move back up to the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. shale industry could collapse, the Institute for Economics & Peace, an Australian think-tank, warned in a new report on Wednesday. Moreover, the oil price plunge will likely affect the political regimes of some of OPEC’s largest producers, including top producer Saudi Arabia and the second-largest producer Iraq, as well as Iran, the think-tank said. “The sharp fall in oil prices will affect political regimes in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, which may result in the collapse of the shale oil industry in the US, unless oil prices return to their prior levels,” the Institute for Economics & Peace said in its report ‘Covid-19 and Peace’ published today. The U.S. shale industry has curtailed production in recent months in response to the very weak oil prices in March and especially […]