While we’ve often thought of “world war” in terms of mass mobilization, physical destruction, and the possible end of the world thanks to nuclear annihilation, the reality is that any new global conflict will be fought just as much off the battlefield as on.
We are an interconnected world these days, with globalism running rampant and allowing for any bad actors on the world’s stage to fully and egregiously roil the system for the rest of us. And, when you have a new authoritarian alliance being born right under our noses, there are serious concerns about just what this means for our global ecosystem.
Take a recent decision by OPEC, for example.
A group of some of the world’s most powerful oil producers on Wednesday agreed to impose deep output cuts, seeking to spur a recovery in crude prices despite calls from the U.S. to pump more to help the global economy.
OPEC and non-OPEC allies, a group often referred to as OPEC+, decided at their first face-to-face gathering in Vienna since 2020 to reduce production by 2 million barrels per day from November.
Energy market participants had expected OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, to impose output cuts of somewhere between 500,000 barrels and 2 million barrels.
The move represents a major reversal in production policy for the alliance, which slashed output by a record 10 million barrels per day in early 2020 when demand plummeted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The oil cartel has since gradually unwound those record cuts, albeit with several OPEC+ countries struggling to fulfill their quotas.
Here is where we can begin to see the combative implications of the move:
The production cut for November is an attempt to reverse this slide, despite repeated pressure from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration for the group to pump more to lower fuel prices ahead of midterm elections next month.
International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $92.82 a barrel during Wednesday afternoon deals in London, up around 1.1%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures, meanwhile, stood at $87.37, almost 1% higher.
The move seems to corroborate concerns of an authoritarian allegiance forming between some of the world’s eastern powers.
