The World's Oil Producers Prepare for a New Era of Low Prices

MIN READJan 7, 2019 | 10:00 GMT

An Austrian soldier guards OPEC headquarters in Vienna on Nov. 29, 2016, ahead of a meeting by the organization.

(JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Heading into 2019, oil producers are getting the feeling that they've seen this market before. That suspicion was reinforced last month when the price of global benchmark Brent crude briefly fell below $50 for the first time since June 2017. In addition, for the second time in five years, declining oil prices have forced global oil producers to stabilize the market by cutting production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). And for the second time in those five years, producers will have to deal with the consequences of low prices, even if the pain might not be as bad this time around....