SUPPLY: Some Non-Arab Serendipity

For the industrialized world, the slash in oil production by the Arab states has been a handful of sand in the economic gearbox. But for oil-exporting nations outside the Arab bloc, the move was pure serendipity. Almost overnight, as global shortages reached crisis proportions, the value of their oil deposits began to zoom. Yet the oil producers have resisted the temptation to try to pump fast enough to make up for the Arab cutback. Instead, they have cannily held output to roughly ordinary levels while sharply scaling up prices. That strategy is...

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