Opec is no longer a dominant force

WHEN recent negotiations in Doha, Qatar, between some of the world's largest petroleum producers failed to deliver an expected freeze of oil production, markets responded in a surprising fashion: The price of oil rallied, hitting its highest point of the year. Part of the price increase was driven by news of a strike among oil workers in Kuwait, now settled, which threatened to temporarily restrict supply.

But the main conclusion to draw from the oil market's counter-intuitive response to the failure to freeze oil production is that the world's larges…