Two years on from the start of the oil price crash, Opec’s core GCC members are using ample cash reserves to keep on drilling with an eye to future market share. But for the cash-strapped periphery a collapse in export earnings has left no choice but to slash spending.

It’s been 18 months since then Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi told MEES that his country was committed to a policy of maximizing market share for “highly-efficient…low-cost” producers, however long this took – “two years, three years, God knows” – and whatever the effect on oil prices (MEES, 18 December 2014). (CONTINUED - 1416 WORDS)