How to fix the oil market

The oil market is broken. Volatile prices are undermining global energy security and increasing geopolitical risk. Getting agreement for a production cut among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is proving difficult, and would in any case be hard to enforce. Instead of looking to the so-called swing producers, there is an alternative solution: create a swing consumer. Or to put it another way, a “tactical petroleum fund”.

The collapse in oil prices since 2014 has cost producers around $1.8 trillion a year. Rich oil exporters have cut discretionary spending and drawn on savings, while poorer states are suffering from intensive political and economic pressures. Capital expenditure cuts have resulted in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and a sharp d...