OPEC’s future is once again up in the air after the decision by Qatar to leave the oil cartel on January 1 2019. Saad Al Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of energy, stated to the press that Doha will be leaving OPEC in order to concentrate its investment and political efforts on natural gas. Qatar’s decision to leave OPEC is being painted as evidence of a new rift inside of the organization. This assessment, however, is built on wrong assumptions and does not take into account the nature of OPEC. The future of OPEC is not in doubt, it could even be argued that the future at present is brighter than it has been for the last couple of years. The oil cartel always had to deal with internal discord or even outright clashes, such as the diplomatic rift between Iranian hardliner Ahmadinejad backed by Hugo Chavez and Saudi Arabia during […]