‘Opec may cut output to defend $80 a barrel’

Financial Express ^ | 02/09/08

[TigerLikesRooster]

‘Opec may cut output to defend $80 a barrel’

Posted online: Saturday , February 09, 2008 at 0114 hrs

Feb 8The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) may cut crude production when it meets next month to keep the price above $80 a barrel, oil ministry officials from four of the group's nations said. Prices of at least $85 would likely lead to no change in supplies when ministers gather March 5 in Vienna, said two of the four officials, who asked not to be identified because Opec's deliberations are private. A third said $80 a barrel would be a signal to pump less, and a fourth delegate said $70 would be unacceptable to most of Opec's 13 members.

The combination of falling crude prices and the dollar's 12% drop in the past year on a trade-weighted basis puts pressure on Opec to reduce supplies as slowing economies in the US and Europe threaten energy demand. Oil fell 30% and the group reduced production quotas three times in 2001, the year of the last US recession.

"Opec wants to protect $80 a barrel," said Johannes Benigni, a managing director at Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy, who attended last week's Opec meeting when the group left its supply levels unchanged. "I got the clear impression from OPEC that that's the number they want to defend," Benigni said.

"It wasn't Opec's fault it moved above $80, but now it's there, they justify keeping it.''Crude oil for March delivery rose as much as 76 cents, or 0.9%, to $88.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $88.77 at 2:26 pm in Singapore. Prices gained 49% in the past year and reached a record $100.09 a barrel on January 3. They dropped 12% since then.

[Blood of Tyrants]

They don’t have to actually cut production to make the speculators go wild, they just have to talk about it.

[Doogle]

open ANWR

[flowerplough]

I can live with $80. It's their oil, and as long as they're price is sorta reasonable, I won't hafta be bothering about 'lectrics and eth/methanol or biodiesel. Strictly business, until they get too official and blatant with their sponsoring of the vicious allahu akbahr murderers.

[mysterio]

Of course they can and will. Oil based fuels are a monopoly until we decide as a nation that they aren't. Apparently, we are happy to let our enemies control our energy supply.

Energy independence now. End of story.

[Alberta's Child]

Of course, the untold part of that story is that "energy independence" would probably cost us a minimum of $150 per barrel.

We don't buy so much oil from the Middle East because we don't have enough here in North America . . . we buy it from there because it's CHEAPER.

[mysterio]

That’s why we should build nuclear power plants in every state with no red tape allowed, sell the excess power, and start converting to biodiesel while researching hydrogen. Moonshot to energy independence. It’s the key plank of any successful WOT.

[2harddrive]

I would LUV to see $80/bbl NOW..and I am in the industry!

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

OPEC simply doesn’t have the monopoly on supply that they used to. Canada won’t be cutting it’s production — so thanks OPEC for ensuring a higher price for Canadians. The less OPEC produces, the less they have to support terrorists and wacky schemes to export communism.

[Alberta's Child]

Good luck with that. There's a reason why fossil fuels are the most efficient form of energy . . . it's because their STORED ENERGY exceeds the energy needed to convert them to a usable form.

I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[b4its2late]

open ANWR

Hell yeah.

[fight_truth_decay]

....and our government (state, federal) defends the amount of tax put on each gallon we pump.. how?

[eyedigress]

If they keep the price where it is shale oil will be mined and permanent operations will be in place. They know it.

[philly-d-kidder]

What goes up must come down!

[stboz]

We don’t need ANWAR. We have the Bakken Shale....400 billion barrels.

[Ramzi Al Kaboom]

That 400 billion got me to thinking....we use about 8 billion a year in the US...so that would sustain us for about 50 years...more or less...at current levels ...barring any changes in technology...consumption ect.

[Always Independent]

Time for the US to create a food cartel!

[Doogle]

my sentiments exactly in another post a few days ago.
The greenies and others are just holding back the US with bogus claims, bleeding us financially, tying our hands with the help of Gorenista’s

[Blood of Tyrants]

The government gets a fixed price per barrel. Whether it is %10 or $90 a barrel makes no difference. But in the UK they get charged a percentage of the pump price in taxes.

[Blood of Tyrants]

That should have read, the government gets a fixed tax per GALLON.