Bearish voices are loudest these days. Several big houses have downgraded their 2019 price forecasts: Goldman Sachs has gone from $70/bl to $62.50/bl, citing a surge in production, particularly from US shale.
Opec may be less influential than it used to be, but still accounts for more than 40pc of global oil supplies against 53pc in the 1970s. Clearly, it has more clout when acting as Opec+, the wider cartel that includes Russia and Kazakhstan—which struck a supply cuts accord in Vienna in December.
