Oil Price Slump: Investigating the Market Dynamics of the Role of the Oil Titans and its Global Impact

Abstract

The oil price decline has been the subject of major captions in the last months and has been outlined virtually in terms of the economics of oil market with a number of media outlets accusing Saudi Arabia and its OPEC Trojan horse of deliberately bringing low the price of crude oil. The widely reported aim of this oil price slump brought about by Saudi Arabia and OPEC is to initiate severe harm to the world's major oil exporters – particularly Russia. Also, Saudi Arabia and its OPEC cartel have a vested desire in getting rid of higher-cost competitors, such as US shale oil producers, who will definitely be hurt by the slump in oil price. High prices spurred companies in North America to begin production of “difficult to produce crude” in the shale formation of North Dakota and oil sand of Alberta. Before the price slump, Saudi Arabia was selling its oil to China at a rebate. OPEC's rejection to reduce production looked like the plainest evidence yet that the oil price decline was indeed an oil price battle between Saudi Arabia and the US. This paper looked at the role of the various oil titans in the current oil price decline and investigates if the reasoning behind it goes beyond OPEC simply driving down the price of crude oil to gain back lost market share and get rid of US shale oil competition.

Keywords: Crude Oil Price, OPEC, Shale Oil