Opec calls crisis meeting to cut production as oil price tumbles

independent.co.uk ^ | 08 April 2003 | By Philip Thornton

[Calamari]

The oil cartel Opec is considering an emergency cut in production to prevent a free-fall in the oil price, which yesterday tumbled to a four-month low at one point as the US-led Allied forces scored fresh gains in Iraq.

[Calamari]

Panic Time?!

[Atlas Sneezed]

It's off a nickle a gallon from the peak where I reside (unchanged at some stations).

Some "tumble"!

[Bogey78O]

They're scared. We have a friendly country now.

[Petronski]

"And today, Achmed is modelling the brown-striped tunic...."

[leadpenny]

Who will represent Iraq at their little get-together?

Yo! Oil Minister! Your ride is ready at Baghdad Intl.

[Jhoffa_]

He-he-he..

Now, I hope we crank the spigot in Iraq wide open and bankrupt those freaks.

[A CA Guy]

Kuwait (sp) kind of likes us as well.

[Robert_Paulson2]

OPEC.... it's not just for breakfast anymore....

LOOKS like they are just figuring out... the big dog is FED TO THE HILT of being blackmailed with OIL... as in "let us kill jews, christians and your little kids with anthrax, while we pump your economy to death with our ability to control the marketplace...."

NOW may be a very very sweet... payback time for the jerks...

[Lokibob]

It never goes down as quick as it goes up.

The article states crude prices have dropped 1/3. Now where is my 1/3 at the pump?

[ThinkDifferent]

Heh, I remember arguing just a month ago with some moron who was certain that the Iraq war would make gas hit $3/gallon (all part of Bush's master plan to make his oil buddies rich, of course).

[A CA Guy]

The other future issue for these countries is about how they are planning their futures.
I think within 30 years we will have new sources of energy and all these Middle East countries will have left will be their worthless oil and sand.
This is not good because if they don't change over to some form of acceptable production of anything, they will starve.
That starving has more of these radical groups going after the responsible contries who have prepared for their futures.
We see this right now with Korea, so this can come to a bad end for the Middle East unless they make changes soon.

That would be good for everybody in the end.

[Southack]

"The article states crude prices have dropped 1/3. Now where is my 1/3 at the pump?"

Ah, but you aren't merely paying for *crude* at the pump, but rather, you are paying for crude + refining + shipping + taxes + profit.

And only crude has gone down...

[OldFriend]

If it was about oil we wouldn't have saved the oil wells.

But then the idiots want to believe what they want to believe and facts be damned pesky things.

[Calamari]

Condi Rice or Donald Rumsfeld?!

[Rodney King]

The article states crude prices have dropped 1/3. Now where is my 1/3 at the pump?

The gas stations paid for the gas in their pumps at a high price. They can't just go cutting the price and sell it for less than cost. It will come down, it will just take a few weeks.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

This is OPEC's "Oh sh*t, the Americans are serious this time!" meeting.

[Rodney King]

This is more politics than anything else. The proper price for oil from their standpoint is the 20-25 dollar range. At anything more than that, the US starts producing in large quantities and significant amounts of exploration activity starts up, which is not good for the Arabs in the long run.

[leadpenny]

That would be great to see Condi show up for the meeting. Or, maybe our Sec of Treasury, Commerce or Energy.

"Ok, boys. What do you want to talk about?"

[antaresequity]

The house of Saud [cards] looks awfully precipitous in these times of 'tectonic shifts in geopolotics'*

*Condaleeza Rice

Ex CIA director Woolsey @ UCLA speaking engagment:
"We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people."

AVOT

[Hessian]

So when the price goes up, we pay for the cost of replacing the cheap gas with more expensive gas, and when the price goes down, we pay for the cost of the expensive gas in their tanks, but not the cheap gas they're replacing the expensive gas with.....this is a system?