S8 Ep804: Michael Bernstam discusses the UAE exiting OPEC, suggesting the organization is a 20th-century artifact. He explains how outdated rules favoring only Russia and Saudi Arabia are driving members to leave the group.

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Michael Bernstam discusses the UAE exiting OPEC, suggesting the organization is a 20th-century artifact. He explains how outdated rules favoring only Russia and Saudi Arabia are driving members to leave the group.
1909

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is John Batchel.
0:02.5	Colleague Michael Bernstein of the Hoover Institution comments on the significance of OPEC breaking up.
0:09.2	UAE announces its leaving.
0:11.1	Why?
0:12.2	It was restricted by OPEC rules for far less than it's capable of pumping every day.
0:18.6	Why?
0:20.6	It joins Qatar
0:22.2	at leaving OPEC,
0:25.3	and Iraq is expected to leave soon enough.
0:29.2	OPEC is left over from the 20th century,
0:31.6	and its rules seem out of date, strangely.
0:35.1	Or, let's put it this way,
0:36.4	the rules favor Saudi Arabia and Russia, nobody else.
0:40.3	OPEC might be an artifact of the 20th century.
0:45.3	More of this tonight.
0:48.3	Here's Michael.
0:49.3	I'm interested in those kinds of relationships.
0:52.3	And when Franklin was named the first ambassador to the Great Britain, I mean, the king
0:59.0	received him very graciously.
1:00.7	I think there was an understanding, even during the conflict of the revolution, the period
1:06.6	after leading up to the war of 1812, that even if we had our differences and those differences
1:12.8	rose to the level of war, we still were going to be deeply and profoundly interconnected.
	...

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