The oil war is only just getting started

However, OPEC – especially Saudi Arabia – has the recent bitter experience of its pump-at-will policy for market share backfiring on its economy when oil prices crashed.

Another market-share war would involve too many unknowns, including supply-demand basics, leaner and meaner non-OPEC producers, oil price effects on oil-revenue-dependent economies, or rationale for investments in higher-cost areas.

OPEC's decision to deliberately cut supply and abandon the strategy of pursuing market share at all costs is currently benefiting the cartel's competitor, U.S. shale.

Commenting on OPEC's current and future relevance and influence on the oil markets, Wood Mackenzie said in an analysis last week:

The group may still be able to control oil prices to a limited degree, but the benefits of that control will accrue to parties outside the cartel. If OPEC remains a functional entity by the end of 2017, its greatest hits will surely be in the past.

Five or ten years from now, a possible market share ‘oil war' would take place on a totally different battleground, and some regiments or battalions may lack essential armory to wage such war.