Can OPEC Control Venezuela, Iran Oil Production?

While it could take five years, OPEC members are likely to start limiting output to send oil prices back to $80 per barrel by 2020, the International Energy Agency says.The Wall Street Journal‘s Benoit Faucon writes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries needs higher prices. Until now, OPEC and its leading members — namely Saudi Arabia — have tolerated low oil prices to maintain market share. The IEA’s World Energy Outlook released Tuesday says oil could stay at $50 a barrel if OPEC can’t restrain production, but the IEA sees production cuts to boost oil prices as more likely. The report comes just before an important Dec. 4 OPEC meeting in Vienna. WSJ writes: “The economies of less wealthy members like Venezuela, Algeria and Iran … advocated a return of a system of fixed oil prices or to individual allocations of oil production–practices OPEC had abandoned years ago as inefficient. But Gulf countries refused the proposals.” More…