When it comes to skewering logic, cause and effect, and simple facts, nobody does it quite like Goldman. Which is why when we got the just released post-mortem of the Doha deal from Goldman's energy analysts Courvalin and Jeffrey "short gold" Currie, we fully expected them to spin today's unprecedented OPEC failure into a bullish catalyst. Not even they were so bold.
Following last night's leaked draft Doha document, which envisions a non-binding, "gentleman-like" oil freeze agreement, that caps production at January levels until October, with zero enforcement or oversight, moments ago the formal Doha talks started:
However, even before the start, things did not look good, when Saudi Arabia delayed the start of the meeting in what seemed to be a redrafting to account for the inclusion of Iran as part of the freeze, something which Iran has clearly said it won't do.
With the world's attention about to focus on Qatar where in just a few hours the Doha OPEC "freeze" meeting is supposed to start (without the presence of Iran which has made it clear it won't freeze production but "supports the decision for other OPEC and non-OPEC countries to freeze crude oil production" so everyone except Iran), moments ago Tass presented a glimpse of what will be announced.
The "Doha oil freeze deal" was a farce from the beginning.
It all started with a February 11 Hail Mary attempt by Venezuela to boost oil prices by launching a rumor that oil production would be frozen (ignoring that both Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are already pumping out a record output).
VENEZUELA OIL MIN PROPOSED OPEC, NON-OPEC ‘FREEZE’ PRODUCTION AT CURRENT LEVELS: RTRS. And Saudi Arabia laughed?
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 11, 2016
Shockingly, it worked.
Submitted by Rakesh Upadhyay via OilPrice.com,
OPEC-member Angola, which is dependent on oil for 95 percent of its export revenues, is facing an urgent cash flow problem, and the only way out is external help as the dominoes start to fall.