Despite a rapid decrease in the price of oil, OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has decided to hold the line on oil prices and not lower them further. However, according to Motley Fool the cartel doesn’t think it should lower the price of per-barrel-oil because it was not responsible for the oversupply seen today. OPEC does, however, want to take care of loose ends in the oil market since it wants to maintain its control.

As Motley Fool points out, there are three factors leading to lower gas prices in America. Americans are driving less due to higher gas prices and demographic shifts, our cars are more fuel efficient and the shale boom. As a result of being able to extract oil from shale rock formations via hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) oil production in the United States has increased exponentially. New innovations in the drilling method have reduced costs while enabling more oil to be removed. Despite oil price declines, it will slow but not stop extracting oil via fracking.

OPEC (Saudi Arabia specifically) is aware of this and is not pleased with the outcome. Some of the oil group’s members are suffering as a result of the petroleum price slump. But it is this pain that the oil cartel hopes to shake off weaker petroleum producers (like Venezuela), in theory, putting it in a better position to run the US out of the oil exporting business. I doubt this strategy will work since, as Motley Fool describes, lower oil prices will slow but not stop US petroleum production since fracking makes oil extraction inexpensive. The online investment news website cites five oil producers that have the means to make lots of money despite low petroleum prices.

If OPEC’s attempt to undermine American oil production in the future backfires (which I think it will), not only will gas prices at the pump go down further but I think Middle Eastern countries will attempt to halt or stifle growth here by delving into politics. I have little doubt that one of the groups they will attempt to enlist are environmentalist groups like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth. Earlier this year, it was reported Russia financed a number of environmentalist groups in order to halt European fracking so the EU would remain dependent on Russia for its natural gas. A 2012 film entitled Promised Land that, for all intent and purposes, was a fictionalized version of Josh Fox’s anti-fracking movie Gasland. As it turns out, Promised Land was discovered to have been financed by an entity established by the United Arab Emirates.

Lower oil prices and increased production are a win-win for consumers. More oil in circulation means lower prices for consumers which means they will be more likely to travel. Higher oil production not only means more gas consumption but also results in job creation as well as the ability to export petroleum overseas. This, in turn, can undercut organizations like OPEC. OPEC knows this and I doubt they will take it sitting down. Like George Washington said: Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder and if the money trail uncovered by a Canadian columnist in 2010 of payouts to environmentalist groups by companies opposed to oil sands extraction, even the greens can be bought for the right price.