OPEC doing its part for economy, urges U.S. to do same
After a meeting which saw a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to leave current production levels in place rather than cutting them to maintain higher prices, a top-level member of the organization has said that they have done their part for the world's economy and "challenged" the U.S. and other countries to "clean up the financial mess they have made." Since cutting production following the collapse of demand last year, the cartel's Secretary General, Abdullah el Badri, reckons they have gifted the world $2 trillion dollars worth of stimulus. Aren't they the generous and altruistic ones.
The Secretary also announced that they would try to lessen the estimated 800,000 barrels a day OPEC members have been producing in surplus of their agreements. He worries that if the price stays around where it is for an extended period, more projects in OPEC countries may be delayed or canceled. More than 35 projects are currently said to be delayed. The move toward less oil-dependent vehicles can only help make OPEC's worst nightmares come true.
[Source: Associated Press / Onet.pl]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
JShmoe 12:57PM (3/16/2009)
If OPEC was doing its job to help, it would not be slowing down production to try to raise the price of oil. In the fall of 2008 they cut production twice to influence the price higher. How is this helping? Exon making record profits year after year. It's all about money and how much can be made. Big companies $&*# on the little guy! I urge OPEC to stuff a sock in it!
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Richard in FLA 1:19PM (3/16/2009)
You can't blame OPEC nor Exon nor any other oil company. They are in business to make money, not philanthropy. I would like for gas prices to be lower, but that would only perpetuate the extraordinary levels of oil consumption this world is consuming. It stifles the introduction of alternative fuels and methods of propulsion. When the price of oil was at stratospheric levels last year, hybrids were flying off the car lots. Now that oil is cheaper again, they are hurting again and everybody is driving their SUV and trucks again. The only reason OPEC is keeping the prices of oil down is to slow down the introduction of alternative fueled cars and trucks. They understand the need to keep gasoline inexpensive so that people will keep buying cars that run on oil because they are cheaper. BEV are expensive and cheap oil will keep people buying gasoline cars.
JShmoe 2:44PM (3/19/2009)
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/18/markets/oil_prices/index.htm?postversion=2009031910
JShmoe 9:09AM (4/27/2009)
Here they go again....
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/26/news/international/opec.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009042612
Anonyous 1:08PM (3/16/2009)
I agree JS, note: that before things tanked around the world, gas was over $4.00 a gallon in the USA. Who really is to blame for the world wide depression? US housing market vs. World Wide Oil supply. Please, who do you think you are kidding?
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ronEbear 1:15PM (3/16/2009)
You`re effed in the head if you think OPEC is responsible for the state of the economy. It was USA`s choice of artificial prosperity that caused it. And by artificial I mean the de-regulated finance sector giving out loans to people who could never afford them in the first place. Now they`re left with "toxic" assets. OPEC had nothing to do with it. Just the "American Way".
polo 1:56PM (3/16/2009)
OPEC instigated the economic collapse. People simply couldn't afford to drive to work AND pay their ballooning subprime mortgages. Only an uneducated fool would say the oil crisis had no effect. Its also incorrect to say that loans given out to people that couldn't afford it was the primary cause. It was SUBPRIME loans given out to people (at huge profit for the lenders), who had no knowledge that these types of loans had interest rates that could dramatically rise above their ability to pay, along with banks then leveraging those loans, in some cases up to 35-to-1, as securities, which exaserbated the problem.
Noz 1:55PM (3/16/2009)
Well said.
Noz 2:17PM (3/16/2009)
POLO...
OPEC did NOT instigate the collapse. If your finances are so screwed that you are affected drastically about fuel prices, then you have more problems than just your fuel bill.
Americans could start by using less fuel. Perhaps that would help. Don't go out to a restaurant everyday, pay up the ass for it, and then complain you can't afford it.
Eat less. It's good for you.
Carney 3:12PM (3/16/2009)
OPEC's production in 2008 was identical to its production in 1978, despite the world's population and economy having doubled.
That's like a cruel master fitting a very tight, snug collar on a newborn puppy, and then refusing to remove it as the puppy grows, which is what healthy puppies are SUPPOSED to do.
And you and noz blame the puppy for growing, and carefully ignore the master who sealed on the collar.
How dare India and China lift themselves out of poverty and begin buying cars? How dare Americans and others dine out, or in other ways seek leisure and enjoyment?
Instead we must live lives of enforced austerity, cramped and limited, with our movements, activity, and aspirations for a better life and future sharply curtailed, in order to preserve a fixed natural or social order.
In many ways the vision of environmentalist extremists meshes quite well with that of the Islamists and other dictators who run OPEC>
Carney 4:06PM (3/16/2009)
Again, I can't get over the obnoxiousness of a sideline jeerer telling the dog to starve itself to fit in its puppy sized collar. I say, BREAK THE COLLAR.
Smash OPEC!
Mandate full flex fuel capability in all new cars (a $100 expense) and tax or tariff oil so that it's always more expensive than alcohol.
Noz 3:06AM (3/17/2009)
Carney,
You're the village idiot who thinks what you do has more relevance and right than anyone else....you go around preaching the world the about way it's supposed to be, how people are supposed to live, and what governments should be allowed to exist, but when someone sqeezes you a little, you crawl back into your cubby-hole and pretend you're this innocent little thing that didn't know better.
The rest of the world has paid a price to your exuberance...don't be shocked if your standard of living goes down while others' go up. Tasting your own medicine sucks doesn't it.
Isellbeachhomes 1:13PM (3/16/2009)
helping? you got to be kidding me. They cut supply because the demand was going to fall off a cliff if they kept the price of gas at $4 gallon. They didn't have a choice and they try to brush it off like they did us a favor? It HAD to be done.
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fnc 1:37PM (3/16/2009)
OPEC's belief that they can control oil prices according to their own whims have always been amusing to me. They are under the fist of supply and demand as much as any other production entity. Artificially high prices and shortages have NEVER been good for them in the long run. They know this but have to keep their game face on.
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Carney 3:07PM (3/16/2009)
OPEC is quite correct in its self assessment that it controls world oil prices. If you have the only water well in a vast desert, you can charge whatever you like of the desperate people around you.
Over 70% of the world's oil reserves like in Mideastern countries alone, while we have 4% and projecting current rates of consumption and extraction forward, by 2020 they will have over 80% and we will have 1%, and that's IF we avoid tapping ANWR and offshore -- if we do our proportion falls even further.
What's more, OPEC nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, not only have the deepest reserves, but also the easiest and cheapest to extract. Saudi Arabia's oil minister admitted frankly in a pubic speech in Houston in 1999 that their total cost of production, including usually-omitted exploration expenses, is $1.50 a barrel (contrast that with the $140 price a barrel fetched in 2008 to get a sense of the power their position gives them to set prices).
Oil demand is highly inelastic and price insensitive. Throughout the tenfold runup of prices between 1999 and 2008, consumption continued to rise rapidly.
OPEC's greed grew and grew until they finally killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. For now. They'll be back at their game soon.
Or we can get off the oil roller coaster and switch to alcohol fuel.
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/achieving-energy-victory
Jharlan 1:38PM (3/16/2009)
What a pile of horsesh*t! Everything OPEC does is 100% in their own self interest. They are scared right now because if they cut production, their revenues go down, and if they don't cut production their revenues are going down. They are addicted to the dollar like we are addicted to oil, but we are doing something about it. There is nothing they can do. With revenues sinking OPEC is likely to come all apart as the members start cheating more and more to try to get more than their share of the market.
Now is the time for massive emphasis on all alternative energy sources. Make those bastards fund their madrassas and terrorism with their own diminishing wealth instead of our dollars.
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Noz 1:46PM (3/16/2009)
So in other words how dare OPEC do something to offend the US right?
As if 100% of whatever the US does isn't for its own interest.
Horseshit indeed.
harlanx6 2:03PM (3/16/2009)
100% of what the US does is for it's own interest NOZ. What's your point?
Noz 2:15PM (3/16/2009)
Then don't freaking complain when others have THEIR interests in mind. What's your point?
Carney 3:01PM (3/16/2009)
Um, we're Americans noz. Naturally we'd be offended if others do things that hurt us. Also, we tend to bristle when the prime culprits for the painful collapse we are experiencing, who are the most greedy, corrupt, viciously extremist people on Earth, lecture us and praise themselves for their self-restraint.
You claim to be a US government employee (NASA) and yet seem to lack any sense of being on the side of America as opposed to our enemies.