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UAE to leave OPEC
201–210 of 750 posts
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're not buddies per se, but Egypt was the first ME country to normalize relations.
They've also been cooperating on blockading Gaza for a couple of decades. Israel gets most of the attention for that, mostly rightfully so, but people seem to forget that there's a border with Egypt too and that has also had very limited access.
Egypt learned on other's mistakes for once. They saw how Jordan welcomed Palestinians on their land and they repaid the kindness by launching a coup against the government in 1970. No wonder not a single anti-Israeli coalition country is willing to deal with Palestinians directly at their own home and are keeping borders watertight :) .
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#203"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a camel". Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the former Emir of Dubai.
Its a fun line, but the volume of money they have and the way its managed says they are looking at retaining that wealth somehow
Money solves a lot, but not everything. At the end of the day it's still a country in a desert. Unfortunately that entire region is a repeating history of temporary wealth and stability that gives way to instability. When that happens the underlying constraints can quickly reassert themselves. Just luck at the history of Kuwait.
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Put together, we’re seeing an Emirati-Israeli axis emerging to balance Saudi hegemony in the Gulf and Iranian hegemony over the Persian Gulf. I’d expect to see an Emirati deal with Egypt and India next if this hypothesis is correct. Don't Egypt and Israel hate each other though? Could UAE feasibly align with both?
Virtually all Arabs hate Israel but Arab governments are more varied. The modern Egyptian state is oriented toward close partnership with the US, and a large part of that was peace with Israel post '73. So yes, the UAE could align with both.
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Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#205"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a camel". Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the former Emir of Dubai.
Where is the Land Rover supposed to sit on this scale? There are current Land Rovers with market positioning suggesting they're "better" than Mercedes, and there are historic Land Rovers which were arguably not much better than camels.
Only a little bit of time in the ME but the Land Rover is likely considered higher status.
Camels are cool still.
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Middle East everyone fights with everyone else and everyone is in covert or open alliance with everyone else. Simultaneously.
And for extra fun, the U.S. sometimes likes to jump into the fray.
The US is more of a bouncer on behalf of Israel than anything else, really.
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
exactly. this sounds like a third path where the UAE charts its own course, and that course increasingly looks paved in Yuan. OPEC cartel membership didnt gain it access to Hormuz, and the US petrodollar promise to protect UAE states from aggression in exchange for trade in USD could not be upheld.
> the US petrodollar promise to protect UAE states from aggression in exchange for trade in USD could not be upheld Well the war is still ongoing, and Iran's regime is already feeling the pain of the blockade [1]. Pricing oil in Yuan because, I guess, the US is somehow not protecting the UAE doesn't make sense because China won't be there to protect them either. The US can just say, well fine you can sell your oil in…
"only the paranoid survive"
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#208"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a camel". Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the former Emir of Dubai.
Where is the Land Rover supposed to sit on this scale? There are current Land Rovers with market positioning suggesting they're "better" than Mercedes, and there are historic Land Rovers which were arguably not much better than camels.
And where is the Jaecoo?
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#209Counterintuitively, I see modern OPEC as mostly net-positive for the West because business and government most cherish stability which OPEC helps provides (emphasis on helps).
Re: UAE to leave OPEC
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Too low and players start losing money Only the non-competitive ones. That's how competition works. OPEC would be deemed an illegal anti-consumer price fixing scheme under the laws of any country with even the most basic of anti-trust laws, if not for the fact that its entirely composed of sovereign countries not subject to any law but their own.
If the price is too low and fields stop being exploited because they're unprofitable, you reduce the volume produced each day. That means there's scarcity with a low price, and you're back at trying to switch en energy source because you just can't get oil. That moves prices upward, because people are willing to pay more, but increasing production is not like turning the faucet in your home. It takes time. This is th…
In a free market "scarcity with a low price" is a contradiction. If there's scarcity the prices will be high, not low. And nobody's going to be reducing production if the prices are high.
> instability of oil production that OPEC tries to prevent
First of all, if the goal is to prevent instability OPEC is doing a terrible job. Secondly, a cartel is not needed to prevent price instability, as demonstrated by the hundreds of other commodity markets around the world which are not controlled by cartels engaging in price fixing schemes.
As with any cartel, the purpose of OPEC is to maximize profits for its members, artificially fixing the price of oil at a level higher than what it would otherwise be in a free market not controlled by a cartel. Price stability is a side effect of that, not the goal.