Opec’s usual oil cut gambit unlikely to move the needle | Financial Times

Opec’s usual oil cut gambit unlikely to move the needle | Financial Times:

If Saudi Arabia and its allies are to convince oil traders that they are serious about balancing the market, they need to do what just a year ago would have seemed almost unthinkable: cut output of its lightest, sweetest barrels and restrict exports to Asia, the fastest-growing demand centre.

This would fly in the face of conventional wisdom which, in recent years, has seen Saudi Arabia target output cuts in the US — home of the most timely and accurate oil data — to convince the market of its influence, while reducing supplies of its heaviest, sourest barrels.

But this no longer works. While Opec and Russia last month managed to strike a deal to reduce output by 1.2m barrels per day in 2019, the market has been unimpressed, with prices continuing to slide.