The Oil War Is Over, and We Won

[Valin]

National Review:

Faced with American producers’ ingenuity, the sheiks back down.

Arthur Herman

October 6, 2016

 

Last week was a bad week for Saudi Arabia.

 

First, Congress overrode Obama’s veto of the bill letting Americans sue the kingdom for its alleged role in the 9/11 attacks. And second, Riyadh finally decided to throw in the towel in its two-year war on American energy producers by announcing that it was prepared to cut oil production by half a million barrels.

 

That war was supposed to collapse America’s fracking industry. Instead, as reported on OilPrice.com, “Saudi’s entire economy is collapsing” — and they are desperate to push oil prices back up again.

 

(Snip)

 

What does all this mean for the future?

 

First, the Saudi surrender means that they not only failed to break the backs of American energy producers, they made them stronger. So strong, in fact, that if the Saudi production cut pushes crude prices back up, American producers will be making more money than ever — money that can be invested in new energy exploration and development and in new technologies like waterless fracking and laser drilling that will make fracking safer, cleaner, and more efficient than ever.

 

Above all, it means America has truly reemerged as the world’s energy superpower. It’s not at all clear if the Saudi-led decision at the OPEC meeting last week in Algiers to cut production by some 800,000 barrels a day will really push oil prices higher. But either way, the verdict is clear. The Americans have won, and the Saudis have lost, this crucial round of the oil war.