Over to you, Texas

The Opec-non-Opec deal will help prices – but even if everyone complies, it can’t on its own be decisive

Eulogio del Pino, Venezuela’s energy minister, reckons the Opec-non-Opec deal of 10 December shows that “we producers are in control of prices”. It certainly shows they want control. Now they actually have to cut as much as they promised, and hope others – like US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and Texas’s free-spirited oilmen – don’t quickly render Opec’s work redundant. Prices should enjoy a warm glow, for now. The volumes in the deal are serious: almost 1.8m barrels a day will be taken from supply, starting in January. The market wasn’t expecting even Opec’s own deal to remove 1.16m b/d, announced on 30 November; and certainly didn’t expect non-Opec to cough up another 0.558m b/d. Bre