OPEC And Shale Oil, The Latest Round

So, just in case you hadn't noticed, gas prices have been falling at the pumps for weeks now.
The reason, essentially, is that Shale oil production (particularly U.S. shale oil) has forced OPEC to lower their prices for crude oil from a high last June of $115 a barrel to a current low of $72 a barrel.

However the silver lining for consumers is that Shale's current success is also likely to be it's undoing at some point the near to middling future. The fact is that if OPEC oil prices drop to $60 a barrel or less, Shale can no longer be pumped at a profit. One of the reasons that Shale, which everyone has known was around for decades, just wasn't worth drilling for at the ratio of then current oil prices as measured against cost of the then available technology that was required.

But once it became obvious a few years ago that OPEC oil was like;y to stay above $90 a barrel, well it was off to the races for Shale oil producers.

The linked article below essentially cover OPEC's strategy for the near future. It's a short read, but quite to the point.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OPEC_MEETING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-11-27-10-37-37