Page 54 - bne_Magazine_July_2018

54 Opinion MACRO ADVISORY:
Going cold Turkey, Russia wants
an end to OPEC production cuts
Chris Weafer of Macro-Advisory
Moscow, rather than a US Presidential tweet, is the initiator of the expected revised Russia-OPEC production deal. The Kremlin has made it clear for some time that it is a lot less happy with high, and rising, oil prices of late than it used be. The ruble is no longer a volatile petro-currency and the economy is being weaned off its previous addiction to annually rising oil wealth. The government learned the lesson of oil dependency the hard way, twice, and does not want a third lesson.
It would, however, be wrong to say that Russia’s stance has nothing to do with the White House. The 2014 sanctions regime is directly responsible for putting the Kremlin in a position where it had no choice but to deal with oil dependency, and vulnerability, and with greater determination to avoid slipping back to into its previous addiction.
But while Moscow had been warning of the danger of creating another oil spike, the government in Riyadh had a different view: the higher oil prices are, the better.
That position also appears now to have changed and while,
on June 14 Russia and Saudi Arabia met in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium at the opening game of World Cup 2018, a little over one week later, on June 22, the two countries were expected to leave competition behind and jointly present a new production deal to OPEC Ministers at their scheduled meeting in Vienna.
Both countries want to change the existing deal and raise respective average daily oil production, although for different reasons. Russia is not comfortable with oil at $80 per barrel that looks like it might go higher.
Saudi Arabia needs a higher average oil price than Russia to balance its budget, but sees an opportunity to boost output because of the steep decline from fellow OPEC member Venezuela. Boosting average daily output would allow Riyadh to reduce its budget breakeven price from $88 per barrel,
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Russian president Vladimir Putin and King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Russia wants an end to the OPEC production cut deal as it doesn't want high prices.
assuming current production, which the IMF estimates it needs today.
Moscow wants a stable oil market, with an indicated price range in the low to mid $70s per barrel, while Saudi Arabia appears ready to compromise on its previous higher price ambition because of the opportunity created by Venezuela and the price supporting backdrop resulting from the US with- drawal from the Iran nuclear deal. That raises the prospect
“Both countries want to change the existing deal and raise respective average daily oil production”
that Iran may not be able to sell as much oil in 2019 as it does today. The regular firing of missiles from Iranian backed groups in Yemen into Saudi Arabia also adds a useful degree of risk and price support.
The other reason why it appears Moscow and Riyadh are ready to announce a new deal is because the producers now benefiting most from the existing deal, and the resulting high oil price, are those in the US, who are not only starting to invest again in shale projects but are boosting crude exports to take advantage of the $10 per barrel premium they can get outside of the US.
According to the methodology used by the International Energy Agency, the US produced an average of 13.17mn barrels per day in 2017 but in the fourth quarter of this year that may rise to 15.28mn, an increase of over 2mn barrels and almost all of that competing in global markets. Neither Moscow nor Riyadh, not to mention the Russian oil majors, are willing to continue sup- porting the US oil industry and helping it gain market share. At first glance it may appear counter-intuitive that Russia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, when refined products are