Doha, Qatar

Quitting OPEC: Qatar announced this week that it is pulling out of OPEC, becoming the first Middle Eastern country to leave the oil cartel since its 1960 founding. The tiny nation of Qatar is one of OPEC’s smallest oil producers but is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, and it says it wants the freedom to raise its output of both oil and gas. But the decision is also a political slap at Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, which has led other Arab nations in a boycott of Qatar since June 2017. Saudi Arabia has been trying to turn Qatar away from Iran, but Qatar has good relations with the Shiite theocracy, with whom it shares ownership of the world’s largest gas field.