- Nov 13, 2022, 6:00 PM CST
While a pushback against OPEC might be politically popular, the reality of today’s energy market means any such move would have global consequences.Earlier this year, Italy’s then-PM Mario Draghi floated the idea of large oil buyers clubbing together and standing up to OPEC+. The idea did not progress much further than the floating stage because one obvious problem could not be ignored: OPEC would retaliate.
For starters, Pope suggests that in case the NOPEC bill is successful, the U.S. could start punishing OPEC+ members by imposing fines, import tariffs, and even sanctions, as well as barring access to public financial markets to national oil companies such as Aramco and Rosneft. The alternative to OPEC that Bloomberg’s Pope proposes is what he calls an Organization for Clean and Affordable Transportation. Pope says it should be made up of “responsible oil producers and consumers”. This means the U.S., Canada, and Norway on the producing side and pretty much everyone but OPEC+ on the consuming side. That’s not a whole lot of responsible producers.
Monopoly / Monopsony... Potato / Potato