OPEC’s meeting in Vienna yesterday came to a rather sorry conclusion.  Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi described the stormy get-together as ‘the worst meeting we have ever had’, with a failure to reach consensus on increasing output.  The context of the Arab Spring has, it would seem, not only put a strain on oil supplies (with Libya out for the count until the grip of civil war eases) but has also increased political tensions within the group.  As Venezuela, Iran and Algeria decried output increases against West-leaning OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, several commentators have seen the collapse of talks as a sign of OPEC’s fading star on the energy landscape, which leaves a Russia-shaped gap.  This was rather presciently felt by Jeff Rubin in an article in the Globe and Mail, an extract of which is below:

Russia, the one country actually capable of producing 10 million barrels a day, isn’t even at the table at the OPEC meeting. And it’s been Russia that has been adding the most to world exports over the better part of the last decade as OPEC exports have faltered.