Register now or log in to join your professional community.
The oil prices have been declining in the international arena for almost two years. What looked like a slight market correction at first turned out to be a record slide in market prices. The current price levels are a mere shadow of the peak price experienced in mid-2014.
While the non-oil producing nations have benefited from the decline in oil prices, it has caused great financial pain for nations whose economies depend on oil revenues.
Right after the start of the oil bust, the Middle Eastern oil producing nations had taken the strategy of defending market share instead of reducing production to bolster prices. The obvious result was a further decline in the oil prices at the international arena. The major oil importing countries especially China and Japan lost appetite for black gold as their economies stalled after experiencing record growth in the past decades.
The supply of oil, however, continued at the previous levels due to which the market was flooded with cheap oil. Since the economies of Middle Eastern states including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar depend on oil revues, they have suffered the most due to the low-level oil prices.
