OPEC Members Are Facing A Cash Crisis

Zero Hedge: Petrostate Cash Crunch Continues Amid Oil Collapse, Proxy Wars

On Friday we noted that Qatar has now followed Saudi Arabia into the debt markets to raise cash amid slumping crude prices. Specifically, Qatar issued some $4 billion in bonds earlier this month - the offering was oversubscribed four times. Central bank Governor Abdullah Bin Saoud Al Thani said simply, “Interest rates are low in Qatar now so we decided it was the right time to issue these bonds and sukuk.”

Indeed, but it’s clearly not all about interest rates although, as we said last month regarding the Saudis’ return to the bond market, there’s something hilariously ironic about the fact that one reason crude prices have remained so low is that ZIRP has kept capital markets open to insolvent US producers allowing them to stay in business longer than they otherwise would have, effectively making the war to maintain market share longer and more painful than the Saudis had figured on, and that, in turn, has now led Gulf states to tap the very same accommodative capital markets that are keeping their US competition in business.

WNU Editor: And it is probably going to get worse .... for OPEC that is.