There’s a very 1980s feel about the oil market right now. If you’re hoping the 2020s are going to see the peak and slump in carbon emissions that we need to avert catastrophic global warming, that’s very good news.
Saudi Arabia’s decision at the weekend to cut one million barrels of crude production echoes a pattern that we’ve not seen since before the birth of the country’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “We will do whatever is necessary to bring stability to this market,” his half-brother, the country’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said after a weekend meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which also extended other nations’ existing cuts through 2024.