The United Arab Emirates just walked out of OPEC, the global oil cartel that’s been squeezing American wallets since your parents were in bell-bottoms, after sixty years of membership. Sixty years. And they didn’t leave because of some diplomatic spat or a palace coup. They left because over 9,000 American oil producers made the entire cartel irrelevant.
Turns out when you actually let Americans compete, the cartels crumble. Who could have possibly predicted that? (Besides President Trump.)
Wood Mackenzie, one of the biggest energy research firms on the planet, called this the “most significant fracture in OPEC’s 66-year history.” And they’re right. This isn’t some tiny member nobody’s heard of sneaking out the back door. Indonesia left in 2016. Qatar in 2019. Ecuador in 2020. Angola in 2023. But the UAE? They’re one of the biggest producers in the Middle East. This is like the drummer AND the lead guitarist quitting the band on the same night.
So how did we get here? Pull up a chair.
Back in the spring of 2014, oil was cruising above $100 a barrel and OPEC was fat and happy. Saudi Arabia was running the show, telling member nations how much to pump, and everyone fell in line because that’s what cartels do. Then American shale producers showed up like the new kid at school who’s better at everything.
By November 2014, prices had dropped to $60. The Saudis panicked. Their brilliant plan? Flood the market with cheap oil and bankrupt every shale driller in Texas and North Dakota. At the time, American producers needed about $76 a barrel just to break even. Saudi Arabia figured they’d just keep pumping until the Americans went belly-up.
Prices crashed below $40 a barrel by 2016. And yeah — a lot of American companies took it on the chin. Some went under. It was ugly.
But here’s what the Saudis didn’t count on: Americans adapt. Our drillers got leaner, meaner, and more efficient. They figured out how to pull oil out of the ground for way less than $76. The technology got better. The costs came down. And suddenly the Saudis were bleeding cash trying to bankrupt an industry that just refused to die.
That’s 9,000 independent producers, by the way. Not government-owned companies run by princes and bureaucrats — independent, competitive, free-market American businesses that account for 85% of our domestic oil and gas production. These aren’t guys sitting in marble palaces deciding how much oil the world gets to have. These are roughnecks and entrepreneurs who figured out how to outproduce a literal cartel.
The UAE saw the writing on the wall years ago. They’ve been quietly ramping up production from 2.65 million barrels a day in 2010 to 4.65 million barrels today, with a target of 5 million by 2027. But OPEC kept telling them to pump less. Saudi Arabia — working hand-in-glove with Russia through OPEC+ — wanted everyone to cut production to keep prices artificially high.
Back in July 2021, the Saudis basically muscled the UAE into backing down during an OPEC+ meeting. Publicly humiliated them. Told them to sit down and follow orders.
Well, the UAE just gave its answer: “We’re out.”
Gabriella Hoffman from the Independent Women’s Forum put it perfectly: “They said, ‘We’ve had enough. We can grow without OPEC.'” And here’s the kicker — she also said, “People want to see competition, and may the best energy producer win.”
May the best energy producer win. Music to our ears.
Because we already know who wins that competition. We do. America has the technology, the workforce, the infrastructure, and — under President Trump — the regulatory environment that lets producers actually produce. We’re not sitting around waiting for permission from some cartel headquarters in Vienna.
OPEC+ still controls about 59% of global production, so they’re not dead yet. But they’re bleeding members like a leaky faucet. And every country that walks out that door is another crack in the foundation of a cartel that spent decades holding the global economy hostage.
There’s even talk of a new hemispheric energy alliance — the US, Canada, Mexico — that could reshape global energy markets entirely. American antitrust laws mean we’d never form our own cartel (because we actually believe in free markets, unlike the folks in Riyadh), but a cooperative framework where North American energy dominates the global stage? That’s not a fantasy. That’s a Tuesday.
The UAE’s official statement said, “A stable global energy system depends on flexible, reliable, and affordable supply.” Translation: OPEC is none of those things, and we’re done pretending.
So raise a glass to the 9,000 American independents who broke OPEC from the inside without firing a single shot. The Saudis tried to bankrupt them. OPEC tried to dictate terms to the world. And a bunch of drillers from Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania just smiled, innovated, and kept pumping until the cartel started falling apart at the seams.
The Left spent years telling us to abandon fossil fuels and buy electric cars that catch fire in your garage. Meanwhile, American energy producers just dismantled a 66-year-old global cartel through sheer competitive excellence. But sure — tell us more about how wind turbines are the future.