OPEC Is Freaking Out About America's Shale Boom

America's shale boom is sending shockwaves through OPEC as the organization heads for its annual meeting Friday, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning.

The main concern is that a global supply glut will weigh down prices, which would be a big problem for petrostate budgets.

From the WSJ:

While Saudi Arabia can tolerate lower prices, "there will be some members, like Venezuela, Iran who will struggle at $90," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at London-based Energy Aspects Ltd. The front month Brent contract for July settled at $102.62 a barrel Monday. Venezuela's oil minister said on Monday that he would push for a cut in OPEC production if oil falls below $100 a barrel.

We've previously shown how falling prices is a concern in the following graph of break-even oil prices for those countries' budgets.