Is OPEC still relevant?

[Toots]

OPEC had Iraq limited on their oil output as Iraq was a part of OPEC. All that has changed now so has OPEC's power been neutered?

[Strelnikov_]

1. The global "The Texas Railroad Commission announced a 100% allowable

for the next month" moment occurred a year or two ago.

Just waiting for it to show up in the rear view mirror.

To understand what the message meant, you have to know that the Texas Railroad Commission was actually the world's first government-sanctioned oil cartel. During the years when the US was the world's foremost producer of oil, the Commission was assigned the task of regulating domestic oil production and controlling prices. The Commission told each oil well operator what percentage of their capacity they were allowed to produce in order to maintain the price and not flood the market. When in the spring of '71 the Texas Railroad Commission announced that every oil producer was allowed to pump at 100% capacity, that was, officially, the moment of US domestic peak production. It meant that the demand for oil had become greater than supply. When OPEC formed in 1960 to coordinate oil production and unify prices, it actually modeled itself on the Texas Railroad Commission.