OPEC has kept the taps open to put pressure on rival, but that could backfire OPEC’s unwillingness to limit its oil output could help usher in a sustained period of low prices and more pain for its members’ budgets, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. The comments by the Paris-based monitor of energy trends echoed criticism from within and outside the group over a Saudi-led strategy of keeping the taps open to put pressure on higher-cost rivals such as the U.S. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries including Venezuela, Iran and Algeria are being badly pinched by falling oil pricesCLZ5, -1.24% and have agitated for production cutbacks to push them back up. The approach is having an effect: U.S. production has dropped in recent months, hit hard by oil prices that have fallen to less than $50 a barrel. But it also comes at a cost. Many large investment banks and oil companies are now predicting oil prices at around $60 a barrel in 2016 — far lower than needed to balance the budget in some oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia. They also come as some Middle Eastern national oil companies are delaying projects to save money. On Tuesday, the IEA said “a lasting switch in OPEC production strategy in favor of securing a higher share of the oil market mix” could, among other factors, could keep the price of benchmark Brent crude LCOZ5, -0.59% around $50 a barrel through the end of the decade. OPEC’s oil export revenue would be 25% lower at those prices than it would be under a more bullish scenario in which oil rebounds to $80 a barrel by 2020. The IEA said the $80 scenario was more likely. More from MarketWatch