<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 10:28 PM, Stathis Papaioannou </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:stathisp@gmail.com" target="_blank">stathisp@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"></blockquote><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class=""><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div></div></div></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​> ​</div>A large part of it is that Saudi, and other OPEC countries, have not agreed to reduce production and support the price.<br></div></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">​<font size="4">Just a few years ago OPEC had the power to set the price of oil at just about any place they wanted, but recently other producers have come on line in a big way (thanks largely to fracking) and they no longer have that power. In the past they could reduce production and still make just as much money because the price per barrel would shoot up, but that won't work today because now 60% of the world's oil is pumped from non-OPEC wells. So OPEC is hurting and if they reduced production they'd make even less money and that would increase domestic discontent and instability and encourage other producers to drill even more wells. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"> John K Clark</font></div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><span></span></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><br></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div>