Having helped wrestle the oil market from its latest bust, OPEC is now setting its sights at avoiding the next one. While insisting that its work to drain oil inventories through output cuts remains far from done, the organization has in recent weeks shifted its rhetoric from that of a swing producer managing a supply glut to one trying to prevent a market squeeze. Ministers have begun to increasingly stress to the market the need to invest in additional production capacity to meet robust growing demand in the years ahead — some $10 trillion needed through 2040 just to offset natural field declines, according to the UAE’s Suhail al-Mazrouei — with a tacit nod to the market’s significant geopolitical risk exposure, particularly in Venezuela. OPEC’s current spare capacity is shrinking, as it maintains its production cuts and global consumption has risen, raising the risk of a price spike that […]