Russia’s Declining Oil Capacity and the Deeper Problems of Cartel Politics

Check out my book “How Ukraine Survived“: You can also read it for free by signing up for a Kindle Unlimited trial at (I use affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission when you make a transaction through them. Even if you read for free, you are still supporting the channel.) At the beginning of March, Russia announced that it would be cutting oil output as a part of a broader OPEC plan to reduce raise global prices. However, there are two reasons that this may be happening. First, as a consequence of the war, it could be that Russia has lost the capacity to produce the same level of oil. Second, it could be that Russia is taking steps to ensure that the cartel pricing scheme does not fall apart. This video examines the evidence for both, using some deep cuts into bargaining theory to help us understand what is happening. 0:00 Russia’s Oil Cuts 2:11 Recent Oil Politics 4:31 Is Russia Losing Its Oil Capacity? 9:58 The Case for Voluntary Russian Cuts 13:24 Why Impatience Is a Virtue in Cartel Collusion 17:45 The Meta Problem with Uncertain Capacity 19:23 The Main Implications for the War The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Media licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (): By Bundesarchiv: 183-K0616-0001-110 183-1986-0416-418 183-1986-0421-010 Media licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (): By RIA Novosti: #417888 #850809 Media licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (): By Thomas Taylor Hammond: : Media licensed under CC BY 4.0 (): By :