> Aren't OPEC essentially trying to starve out the competition (shale, fracking, solar, wind, etc.)? My understanding is that OPEC has largely been a tragedy o

> Aren't OPEC essentially trying to starve out the competition (shale, fracking, solar, wind, etc.)? My understanding is that OPEC has largely been a tragedy of the commons. The members all gain by limiting sale volume, but each member has an incentive to cheat and overproduce their quota. Historically, Saudi Arabia has underproduced to make up for the cheating and to hold the price line, but it sounds like they got fed up with doing that, and decided to show the other OPEC countries what life without OPEC would be like. In regards to the competitors you mentions, you really have to split them into two groups: auto fuel and electric power generation. OPEC really has no effect on electric power generation, mostly because no one burns oil for electricity. The main hydrocarbons people burn are coal and natural gas, and they're already really cheap. It may be that Saudi Arabia wants to harm the shale-oil businesses, particularly the debt financed ones. I don't really know much about the business, but the thing to remember is that even if a business goes bust - its asses don't disappear. They get bought up by someone else. The high prices may discourage discovery work. The effect on currently producing wells is more difficult to predict.