OPEC members are making the task of oil market rebalancing harder by maximizing their production ahead of a ministerial conference at the end of November. OPEC output is actually increasing, putting downward pressure on oil prices, even while the organization’s members are in talks designed to reduce output in future, with the intention of pushing prices up. Not for the first time, OPEC’s members are engaged in a high stakes game of chicken. Crude production rose by 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record 33.64 million bpd in October, according to an analysis of secondary sources used by the organization. Output is now between 640,000 bpd and 1.14 million bpd above the production ceiling of 32.5 million to 33.0 bpd ministers agreed […]