July 16, 2015
The Washington Post had a major piece describing what it called a “global competition” by oil producers to stay in business even as prices remain low. The piece seems to imply that the strategy of Saudi Arabia in this competition is to pump enough oil to keep prices low, thereby driving out competitors. They would then raise their prices once the competition is gone.
This strategy does not make sense. A prolonged period of low prices may push some of their competitors into bankruptcy, like Continental Resources, the fracking company at the center of the piece, but the oil would still be there. This means that if prices rose enough to make shale oil profitable again, then new competitors will buy up the land and the equipment of the bankrupt companies and start producing oil again. While this process will take some time, it is at most a matter of a couple of years and quite possibly considerably less.
Given the current situation in the oil market, Saudi Arabia can likely have a large market share or can have high prices. There is not a plausible scenario in which it can have both.
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