(Houston)

The oil market has had a great year. US oil prices have risen from $45 a year ago to over $70 recently. Big oil producers have successfully worked together to constrain output in an effort to boost prices. However, that condition may be set to change. OPEC has already warned that it may have to increase supply for its member producers, and now the country has a meeting in Vienna next week where that eventuality will likely be decided. One portfolio manager put it this way, saying “OPEC countries will be contemplating production levels that could potentially tip the supply/demand balance currently in place, leaving crude oil pricing susceptible to oversupply”.

FINSUM: We do not think the global cooperation with producers will last, as each wants to boost production as a way of increasing revenue.