OPEC is back to its squabbling ways after an unusual period of near harmony. But investors who are bidding up oil prices in the expectation of a split are misunderstanding both the history of the cartel and the current state of the oil market.
With the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting at the end of the week, the squabble is between the organization’s leader, Saudi Arabia, and three of the cartel’s five fellow-founding members, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela. OPEC nonmember Russia is siding with Saudi Arabia...