could start punishing OPEC+ members by imposing fines, import tariffs, and even sanctions, as well as barring access to public financial markets to national oil companies such as Aramco and Rosneft. Again, the problems are too obvious to overlook.įor starters, Pope suggests that in case the NOPEC bill is successful, the U.S. One Bloomberg columnist, Carl Pope, recently detailed his vision of an anti-OPEC grouping, which manages to combine the idea of both affordable oil and a push for the electrification of transport. Some, however, have gone further than a bill. The idea of an anti-OPEC buyers’ club has also resurfaced, and not just that, but a NOPEC bill has moved to the Senate in the United States and, according to media coverage, has a chance of passing. Yet it seems that some ideas tend to be so attractive that they resurface, again and again, in slightly different forms. The idea did not progress much further than the floating stage because one obvious problem could not be ignored: OPEC would retaliate. Earlier this year, Italy’s then-PM Mario Draghi floated the idea of large oil buyers clubbing together and standing up to OPEC+.
