Iraq insists OPEC members are fighting for market share

Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraqi Oil Minister said members of OPEC are engaged in an internal price war as they seek to preserve their share of an oversupplied market,

“There is a price war within OPEC. The market’s fundamentals have changed, with an extra 3 MMbopd entering the market at a time when growth in China and India has slowed,” Abdul Mahdi said.

Crude prices have collapsed more than 20 percent from their June peak, meeting a common definition of a bear market. Global supplies are rising as a shale boom spurs US production to the highest level in 30 years and demand grows at the slowest pace since 2009. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, cut the price of its main crude export grade to Asia to the lowest in almost six years on October 1, a move later matched by Iran.

The Saudis will announce official selling prices for December soon. Asian traders are split on whether the kingdom will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted production to a 14-month high of 30.974 MMbopd in October led by Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Libya. US oil production rose to the highest since at least 1983, according to the statistical arm of the Department of Energy.