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Vienna Summit Likely to Reveal OPEC as Obsolete in Global Energy System

© Flickr / alex.ch OPEC headquarters in Vienna
OPEC headquarters in Vienna - Sputnik International
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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will fail to have any significant impact on global oil price fluctuations at its meeting this week in Vienna, veteran Middle East analyst and author James Paul told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The OPEC meeting is being held against a background of steadily reviving oil prices, which hit $50 a barrel on Tuesday, despite Saudi Arabia’s efforts to drive global prices down by dramatically expanding its own production.

"OPEC attracts a great deal of attention these days, but it is fundamentally weak and not at all the symbol of radical nationalism that it was in its heyday in the 1970s," Paul said.

A man rides a camel through the desert oil field and winter camping area of Sakhir, Bahrain, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015 - Sputnik International
Positive Oil Forecasts Create Disincentive for OPEC to Cap Production
However, Paul explained that both, the Saudi government and the OPEC itself were becoming increasingly obsolescent in the very different market conditions and energy business structures of the 21st century.

"In fact, the central tenet of the OPEC movement — the nationalization of oil and gas resources — is quietly being set aside in favor of partial privatization measures. Even the Saudis — whose resources are gigantic — are planning to sell off a slice of the national company, Saudi Aramco," Paul pointed out.

Memories of OPEC’s years of maximum profit form artificially-high-priced oil-exports in the 1970s had motivated other nations to open up new supplies and cheaper oil producing technologies that resulted in the current global glut, Paul noted.

"In a sense, OPEC under the rule of the Saudis and the other petro-monarchies has led the way into this low oil price environment that has caused so much of the crisis among oil producers," he recalled.

Now, the fracking movement, deep sea extraction and hazardous drilling were all being squeezed in battles among big players in global energy markets, Paul observed.

Plummeting oil prices mean that Saudi Arabia - for the first time in 15 years - will have to post a deficit and enter the debt market, according to a leading financial research firm. - Sputnik International
Saudi Refusal to Work on Stabilizing Oil Prices Set to Backfire
However, other governments and concerned environmentalists and popular movements around the world should not allow Saudi Arabia and its fellow petro-monarchies nor the international energy corporations to shape the energy contours of the new century, Paul warned.

"It is high time for responsible governments to take up this challenge and not to leave our environment in the hands of Saudi Arabia or Exxon," he said.

James Paul served as Global Policy Forum Executive Director from its foundation in late 1993 through the end of 2012 and was the representative to the International Federation of Human Rights at the UN.

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