"The exit of the UAE - one of the group's biggest producers - weakens OPEC's control over global oil supplies and widens a rift between the UAE and its neighbour Saudi Arabia, effectively the leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries." FULL STORY at above link.
"As Jack Anderson documented in Oil: The Real Story Behind the World Energy Crisis, OPEC’s history is one of internal tension -- by 1983, the cartel’s sales had plummeted from 31 million barrels a day to about 14 million as members cheated and customers resisted high prices [3]. The same dynamic is playing out now, only faster.""The cartel’s artificial scarcity has hurt the rest of the world for decades, and the UAE’s exit is a rational response to a broken system. In an interview with me, Steve Quayle warned that an OPEC embargo or a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could push oil to $200 or even $300 per barrel [4]. That kind of windfall is exactly why the UAE wants to produce more, not less. The country is looking out for its own interests, and I cannot fault it for that. The prisoner’s dilemma always ends the same way: when the benefits of cheating outweigh the costs of compliance, the cartel collapses." FULL STORY at above link.