Saudi Arabia has transformed sentiment in the oil market by assembling an unprecedented coalition of oil producing countries to agree output cuts in 2017. Saudi officials have obtained pledges from OPEC members to cut production by almost 1.2 million barrels per day and from non-OPEC members by an extra 560,000 bpd during the first half of 2017. In the process, Saudi negotiators wrong-footed many hedge fund managers, who had established large short positions in futures and options last month expecting there would be no deal or only a very weak one. Hedge fund managers increased their short positions in the three main crude futures and options contracts by more than 200 million barrels between Oct. 18 and Nov. 22 amid scepticism about any deal. But as negotiators narrowed their differences and then […]