沙特和美国或将组成新石油联盟

据今日油价3月24日报道，彭博社援引能源部长丹·布劳莱特(Dan Brouillette)的话报道称，美国和沙特一直在讨论建立石油协定的想法。这种协定实际上等于一个卡特尔组织，根据定义，卡特尔组织是一群独立的市场参与者，同意以有利于他们的方式共同影响市场。

但是，目前，这只是美国政府中一些官员支持的想法。据Brouillette称，这变成现实的可能性尚不清楚。

美国能源部长在接受彭博社采访时表示，政策空间中浮现出很多想法，这是其中之一。我不知道它会以任何正式的方式呈现。

疫情爆发和沙特在俄罗斯拒绝就进一步减产进行合作之后引发的价格战，给美国石油业带来沉重打击。生产商正在削减支出计划，暂停股票回购，一些生产商已经要求油田服务提供商对其服务进行大幅折扣。

自今年年初以来，美国基准的西德克萨斯中质油价已下跌了约60％。

据路透社的约翰·肯普（John Kemp）称，除非该国乃至世界的经济前景得到迅速的改善，否则经济将进一步下滑。对于美国的页岩产业或超级巨头来说，这种前景都不是好消息，这使得美国政府对沙特的举动是合乎逻辑的。 但是还不确定。

郝芬 译自 今日油价

原文如下：

Saudi Arabia And The U.S. Could Form The World’s Newest Oil Cartel

The United States and Saudi Arabia have been discussing the idea of setting up an oil accord, Bloomberg reports, citing Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. Such an agreement would effectively amount to a cartel, which, by definition, is a group of independent market participants agreeing to act together to influence the market in a way favorable to them.

For now, however, this is just an idea that some officials in the Trump administration support. The chance of it becoming anything more is unclear, according to Brouillette.

“There are many, many ideas that are floated around the policy space, that is one of them,” the U.S. Energy Secretary told Bloomberg in an interview.

“I don’t know that it is going to be presented in any formal way.”

The U.S. oil industry has suffered a heavy blow from the combination of the coronavirus outbreak and the price war that Saudi Arabia started after Russia refused to cooperate on deeper production cuts. Producers are slashing spending plans, suspending share buybacks, and some have already asked oilfield service providers for substantial discounts to their services.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, has shed about 60 percent of its value since the start of the year.

According to Reuters’ John Kemp, it has further to fall unless the economic outlook for the country—and the world—improves sharply and quickly. This outlook is not good news for either the shale industry or the supermajors in the U.S., which makes the administration’s moves concerning Saudi Arabia only logical. But nothing is certain yet.

“As part of the public policy process, if you will, our interagency partners often get together and talk about a number of different items, but we’ve made no decision on this,” Brouillette told Bloomberg.