If you are an investor, ideally you like to own shares in companies that have monopolies or near monopolies, to ensure there is a floor for the commodity prices. The floor means prices of the commodity should not go lower than that, if they go higher so much the better. Sometimes the ideals of the investor and the ideals of the consumer are opposite.

In an article by Ahmad Ghaddar, Alex Lawler and Oleysa Astakhow of Reuters, the OPEC companies offer a monopoly. Ever since 1973, OPEC has influence prices, before that it was the 7 largest oil companies at that time.

OPEC or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies is combined with the + which is allies led by Russia. (Russia’s number one export is oil and gas).

Having oil in the ground and not being in the G7 countries, is the entrance way into OPEC.

Since April of 2025, OPEC+ members have released 2.9 million barrels a day into the market.

OPEC+ has about 3.24 million b/d of output cuts in place, representing about 3% of global demand. The cuts are in place until the end of 2026.

The process for 2027, is an outside company will assess capacity at 19 of the 22 OPEC+ members. Capacity in the countries under sanction such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela will be assessed by a different company or by using an average of their oil output for August through October 2026.

With quotas, there are always some companies that either want to produce more or want higher quotas such as the UAE and others that resisting quota cuts because their production capacity as fallen such as Angola.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many industries are complicated because the players have different influence over the industry. In the oil industry, the OPEC countries produce more than they consume, so they need to sell to other companies. The companies have consumers and consumers wish to pay as low as possible. On top of that the major oil companies produce oil domestically and offshore in non OPEC countries but all are influenced by the OPEC desirability for a range of prices. As an investor in the oil business this ensures oil companies make money, the issue is how much?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.