For a short while it seemed that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would start acting like a cartel again by putting a ceiling on the group’s production of crude. But that was wishful thinking given what happened in April at the oil producers’ summit in Doha. Irreconcilable political and economic differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran torpedoed a proposed production freeze. Those same differences again led to a lack of action at Thursday’s OPEC meeting, when they made no decision regarding output. Delegates put a brave face on this situation. “There was consensus that market fundamentals are working and there wasn’t pressure on OPEC to think about influencing supply and demand,” said Mohammed al-Sada, Qatar’s energy minister. The market obliged him right on schedule . Shortly after the meeting in Vienna ended Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s report on inventories helped crude […]