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f Is Shale Oil the New Oil Swing Producer?
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 79th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2017, Jun 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 2
Abstract
Traditionally the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was considered as the swing producer on the world oil market. The real swing producer was in fact Saudi Arabia due to its huge spare capacity. But, in the recent period and thanks to its growing capacities of unconventional oil (shale oil and tight oil), the United States seems to have become the new swing producer both upwards, between 2008 and 2015, and downwards, since the spring of 2015.
Is OPEC really no longer the swing producer? Is OPEC yet a (not THE) swing producer? Do we now have two swing producers? What about the impact of the decisions taken by the Organization at its 30 November 2016 Ministerial Conference after more than two years of inaction despite falling oil prices? The presentation will deal with these main issues as well as with the time constraints: what will be the main swing producer in the long term and not only in the short and medium term?