OPEC's Geneva Debacle

Petroleum producers fail in a desperate attempt to find unity

For a brief moment last week, it looked as if the two years of chaos in the world's oil markets were ending. Saudi Arabia appeared about to force its moderate pricing policy on the 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But then, after a week of frantic negotiations behind closed doors in Geneva's luxurious Intercontinental Hotel, the oil ministers broke up in deadlock. Instead of agreeing to a compromise formula that would have reunified OPEC's crazy quilt of prices, which range from a low...