why oil-buying countries did not form a counter-cartel to OPEC+?
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The answer is that Cartels are not easy to form. The incentive to “cheat” from a cartel is huge. We actually see this in OPEC a lot. The smaller countries in opec will actually produce more than they are “supposed” to, and are generally against the cuts in production. We see Saudi Arabia and the big producers need to cut more than others to maintain the cartel. Saudi Arabia can do this because they produce soo much oil.
This whole process is also made a lot easier because many oil producing countries are NOT democracies. The Saudi royal family does not need to get any approval or votes to cut production. They don’t need to pass laws or threaten corporations.
It is much much harder for even just the US to “decide” to import less oil. It is basically impossible for a large group of democratic countries (The US, the EU) to decide to, and actually form, a working cartel.
I mean, in the US it was literally easier to GO TO WAR than implement price controls…
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