The OPEC agreement is starting to move the needle on one stubborn metric that had remained depressed since the market downturn began more than three years ago: investment in new upstream projects. Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said this week that the Saudi-Russia oil alliance will last for “decades and generations,” noting that more work is needed to stabilize the market and “preserve our long-term interests.” A few days earlier, he stressed the importance of close coordination beyond 2018. One of the principle justifications for continuing close coordination for an extended period of time was that spending on new large-scale, long-term oil projects remains subdued, which al-Falih argues is the result of a lack of confidence in the “long-term prospects of the market.” But there’s some evidence that the OPEC agreement, which was originally signed in late 2016, is starting to bear fruit on that front. The long list […]