Have-nots of oil world scramble for cover after Opec decision

Montevideo

NOT all oil giants are created equal, as struggling Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran and Russia are painfully made aware in the wake of Opec's divisive decision to maintain production levels. Last week's decision to keep output at 30 million barrels a day has sent oil prices tumbling to five-year lows and split the 12-country cartel and other major producers between the haves and the have-nots.

While well-heeled Opec members are playing a long game to protect their market share in the face of a US shale oil onslaught, their poor cousins are desperate for prices to rise so they salvage their teetering economies. Unlike the Gulf states that rejected turning down the taps, these countries generally do not have sovereign wealth funds to smooth over price fluctuations and have built their government budgets around a price scenario that is now radically out of sync with reality.