WE CANNOT SIMPLY DRILL OUR WAY TO LOWER PRICES OR WHATEVS: Why Oil Prices Took Such a Tumble—and What Comes Next.

The International Energy Agency now predicts oil inventories will exceed their five-year average in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries imminently. If they keep rising, that could put even more pressure on prices to fall the way they did in 2014, when inventories swelled.

High inventories are a headache for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which began cutting output in January 2016 to drain the last supply glut and stabilize prices. It worked for two years. But OPEC’s efforts are now clearly starting to falter. This has fueled expectations that the cartel will agree to further cut output at its meeting on Dec. 6.

“There is a determination from Saudi and OPEC to target inventories to avoid a big build like it happened back then (2014-2016),” said Giovanni Serio, head of research at Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader. “If OPEC continues to respond to fundamental conditions, we should be fairly confident that stocks are not going to explode.”

That’s more marketshare for American oil — thanks, Obama!