It's All About The Asian Market -- Slump In Oil Prices -- February 11, 2015; OPEC Cuts Oil Prices To Asia; Maybe It's All Those Teslas Being Sold In China

I track "slump in oil prices" here. I think I came to this same conclusion some time ago -- I'm sure most readers figured it out a lot sooner than I did. Whatever. Here's the latest, from Bloomberg:

Iraq, Kuwait and Iran joined Saudi Arabia in cutting their March crude prices for Asia, signaling the battle for a share of OPEC’s largest market is intensifying.

Iraq’s Basrah Light crude will sell at $4.10 a barrel below Middle East benchmarks, the deepest discount since at least August 2003.

National Iranian Oil Co. said its official selling price for March Light crude sales will be a discount of $2.10 a barrel, the widest since at least March 2000.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said Wednesday its discount will be $4.10, the biggest since August 2008.

The cuts come after Saudi Arabia, the largest crude exporter, reduced pricing to Asia last week to the lowest in at least 14 years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries left its members’ output targets unchanged at a November meeting, choosing to compete for market share against U.S. shale producers rather than support prices.

Iraq is the second-biggest producer in OPEC, Kuwait is third and Iran fourth. 

Weak demand right now. Maybe it's all those Teslas they're selling in China.

“This is a global market that’s oversupplied,” Emerson said. “Late March and early April are in normal times a period of weak demand, so you have to be rather aggressive now if you want to sell your oil.” 

Wait for summer.

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Really?

Getting back to the story above. Note this line near the end of the story:

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries left its members’ output targets unchanged at a November meeting, choosing to compete for market share against U.S. shale producers rather than support prices. 

"...choosing to compete for market share against US shale producers rather than ...."

The writer seems to be confused. That paragraph, by the way, has become a trope in less than three months (trope is a fancy word for "boiler plate," it appears).

First, the US bans exports of oil, so it's hard for folks to see the connection between OPEC and US competing for the Asian market.

Second, I thought the story was all about cheating within OPEC. In fact, there was another story about all the oil flowing from Latin America to Asia just last night (or early today, I forget). I guess OPEC blaming the low oil prices on US shale is sort of like MSNBC blaming all the US woes on George W. Bush.