OPEC is effectively extinct as a united organization and the time when it could determine global oil market conditions should be forgotten, Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s biggest oil firm Rosneft, told Reuters. The comments are the first from Russia’s most influential oil executive after crude producers failed to agree to freeze output to support prices at a meeting in Qatar last month. A long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, Sechin has been skeptical about OPEC before, saying that top oil producer Russia should stick to its own strategy and protect its market share. “The 1970s, when a series of the largest Middle East producers could determine global oil market conditions by creating cartel structures such as OPEC, should be forgotten,” Sechin […]