Opec seen defending strategy of letting oil price sink

London

IT'LL take more than US$40 crude to make the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) change its mind, analysts said before the group's Dec 4 meeting in Vienna.

In the year since Opec chose to defend its market share, and let prices sink, a 44 per cent plunge in crude has slashed members' revenues by almost half a trillion dollars. Undeterred, the group will press on with its strategy to batter rival producers when ministers meet next week, according to 30 analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg.