Russia Has Started A War Against America's Shale Oil Industry

Bloomberg: Putin Dumps MBS to Start a War on America’s Shale Oil Industry

At 10:16 a.m. on a wet and dreary Friday morning, Russia’s energy minister walked into OPEC’s headquarters in central Vienna knowing his boss was ready to turn the global oil market upside down.Alexander Novak told his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman that Russia was unwilling to cut oil production further. The Kremlin had decided that propping up prices as the coronavirus ravaged energy demand would be a gift to the U.S. shale industry. The frackers had added millions of barrels of oil to the global market while Russian companies kept wells idle. Now it was time to squeeze the Americans.After five hours of polite but fruitless negotiation, in which Russia clearly laid out its strategy, the talks broke down. Oil prices fell more than 10%. It wasn’t just traders who were caught out: Ministers were so shocked, they didn’t know what to say, according to a person in the room. The gathering suddenly had the atmosphere of a wake, said another.

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Update #1: Putin Launches "War On US Shale" After Dumping MbS & Breaking Up OPEC+ (Zero Hedge)
Update #2: Oil Apocalypse . . . . Putin said, "Nyet" to Mohammed bin Salman (OilPrice.com)

WNU Editor: Millions of U.S. jobs are tied in with the energy industry. This chaos in the energy industry is going to cost a lot of jobs, and all of this will be happening right before the U.S. Presidential election. The question that remains unanswered is .... what will resonate more with the American public? Cheap gas prices, or an increase in unemployment. Historically speaking, cheap gas prices have always favoured the President in power. But these job loses are going to be happening in states like Pennsylvania that are critical to President Trump's re-election campaign. Either way we are going to be finding out in the coming months.

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