OPEC and Russia are officially working to establish a formal alliance that would allow for the indefinite management of the oil market. The OPEC/non-OPEC coalition, often referred to as “OPEC+”, has presided over two rounds of production cuts since early 2017. The deals were one-off affairs, viewed as temporary emergency measures to erase a painful glut of supply that was draining the coffers of all oil producers alike. But why not make the partnership official? The Wall Street Journal reports that such negotiations are underway. This is not the first time we have heard about a formal OPEC+ partnership. Last year, the two sides, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, discussed such an eventuality, but ultimately backed off. The idea of a formal OPEC+ architecture has an obvious logic. Together, OPEC+ controls over 40 percent of global oil supply. Combining their production volumes to tweak output levels here and […]