The 173rd OPEC Meeting concluded with the expected decision to extend the OPEC production cuts for an additional 9 months (January 2018 through December 2018) but during the 3rd OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, ministers added a provision to review the production cuts based on market fundamentals at the June 2018 OPEC meeting. The extension was the outcome that Saudi oil minister Khalid al Falih wanted and the provision to review was clearly a concession to Russian oil minister Alexander Novak's position. Before the OPEC ministerial meeting, he spoke about where he sees the oil market going and specifically offered some thoughts on the shale oil industry. Al Falih foresees rising global demand coming especially from the developing world that will absorb the growth in production from the shale oil industry . The week before the meeting, OPEC delegates received briefings from a variety of sources in the United States on the state of the U.S. shale oil industry.

Source: Forbes November 30, 2017 19:52 UTC