Blink?

Updates

November 21, 2014: I don't particularly "like" this story. I think it's way too early to say. But I will link it for archival purposes. Bloomberg is reporting:

OPEC was mistaken in thinking that U.S. shale oil production would be unprofitable once crude prices slipped below $90 a barrel, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin.

Original Post

Reuters via Rigzone is reporting:

A subtle shift may be taking place within OPEC as it heads into its most important meeting in years, according to delegates with the producer group, as the discussion over whether it needs to cut output to defend oil revenues quietly intensifies.

OPEC's Secretary General Abudulla al-Badri this week urged markets not to panic over the drop in prices to a 4-year low near $81 a barrel, while Kuwait's oil minister said OPEC was unlikely to cut output when it meets on Nov. 27 in Vienna.

But privately, more delegates within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are starting to talk of the need for the group to take some action, although they warn that reaching an agreement will not be easy.

That could involve reducing output by around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), the amount OPEC is currently producing above its output target of 30 million bpd, according to its own figures. That could serve as a face-saving compromise between those willing and opposing a formal cut.

****************************************

Mixed Messages

A big "thank you" to Don for noting the irony or mixed messages in this report. The AP is reporting:

While the Obama administration, Congress and the Coast Guard all say maintaining at least one heavy icebreaker is essential for maintaining U.S. security and science, no funding proposals have yet gained momentum to have a new heavy U.S. icebreaker built before age forces the Polar Star out of service, any time from five to 20 years from now.

Without active heavy icebreakers, "the control of the Arctic is in the hands of Russia," California U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard and maritime affairs, said Tuesday.

The Arctic is estimated to hold more than 10 percent of the world's undiscovered oil reserves, nearly one third of undiscovered gas reserves, and remains a strategically critical area for the United States, congressional researchers said earlier this year.

Melting ice means traffic has increased in the Bering Strait, between Russia and Alaska, 118 percent since 2008. More melting means more vessels will be coming within harm's way of ice.

Meanwhile, researchers say study of the 1.5 million-year-old ice of the Antarctic is critical to tracking the Earth's increasingly variable weather and the course of man-made climate change.

Under the Obama administration, the US has pretty much written off the Arctic.