Something unprecedented happened last November when OPEC sat down in Vienna to hammer out the final terms of its oil production cut deal (which, incidentally, has yet to translate into a drop in record high inventories): one day before the summit, the oil producing cartel – or rather Saudi Arabia – secretly invited hedge funds to sit in on the negotiations and provide OPEC with input on what to do. However, news of the meeting leaked shortly thereafter, and was reported by the FT: “Saudi Arabia convened private talks with the world’s largest oil traders in Vienna before OPEC’s crunch meeting on whether to cut oil output.” Mark Couling, head of crude oil at Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trading company, was invited to Vienna by the Saudi delegation, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Pierre Andurand, who runs the $1.5bn Andurand Capital fund, one of […]