Opec’s key producers Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE and Iran all have coherent oil market policies. Opec itself does not. Riven by internal divisions the organization risks turning into an irrelevance.

With little real power Opec’s Secretary General ‘Abd Allah al-Badri resorted to a predictable script at this week’s Chatham House MENA Energy conference in London. Oil at $30/B is “a disaster.” It is “crucial that all the major producers sit down to come up with a solution... The market needs to see inventories come down to levels that allow prices to recover and investments to return,” he says. (CONTINUED - 1170 WORDS)