Anthony DiPaola: Why Saudi Arabia switched back to support Opec

To understand why Saudi Arabia changed course and decided Opec should go back to managing supply, look at two of the kingdom’s biggest policy challenges: The urgent need to plug holes in its budget and the plan to sell a stake in the state-owned oil monopoly.

Two years after the world’s biggest exporter backed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ switch to a pump-at-will strategy to defend market share, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister promised to bear the biggest burden in curbing global supply.

The market response suggests it may have been the prudent thing to do. By promising to cut production by just 4.7%, the country gained an 18% jump in oil prices.