Posted on 04/24/2003 7:48:35 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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Thu Apr 24, 4:33 PM ET
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VIENNA -- Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers agreed to cut two million barrels a day from current output levels at their emergency meeting here Thursday, but also decided to increase their output ceiling to 25.4 million barrels a day from 24.5 million barrels a day.
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Meanwhile, OPEC (news - web sites) (News - Websites)President Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah warned Thursday that the oil-producer group would look at even deeper cuts in its output come its June 11 meeting.
Speaking at a press conference after OPEC agreed to cut its current output by two million barrels a day, Mr. Al Attiyah said it wouldn't be too late when its latest decision comes into effect in June.
"If we do nothing, the price could fall below $22 barrels. Everyone in OPEC proposed the quota change," he said.
By the decision, OPEC wasn't trying to assume control of Iraq (news - web sites) output and when it returns to oil output, OPEC would welcome it, he added.
Mr. Al Attiyah said the price band mechanism that OPEC uses to steer the price with would remain in place.
The key 27.4 million barrels a day output figure from which OPEC has decided to trim two million barrels a day includes some prewar Iraq oil production, Mr. Al Attiyah said. Taking out this amount of oil takes the group down to its new output ceiling of 25.4 million barrels a day, he added.
On the issue of members' quotas, OPEC didn't discuss individual countries' request for changes to their quotas. But Iraq's would be reviewed when it came back on stream, he said.
The group's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, would slice one million barrels a day from its current output and would have a revised quota under the terms of the new ceiling of 8.25 million barrels a day.
For technical reasons, Mr. Al Attiyah said, the group's oil output in May will be unchanged from 27.4 million barrels a day.
The OPEC president said he had had support from non-OPEC countries such as Russia, Mexico and Oman, without giving further details.
-- Stella Farrington of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this article.
It will. OPEC will be a dead entity two years from now.
I wouldn't be surprised to see oil drop below $20, at least briefly.
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Turkmenistan to increase oil exploitation in Caspian Sea ten-fold
Ashkhabad, April 23, IRNA -- Turkmenistan's President Spar Murat
Niyazov here on Wednesday said that his country plans to increase
its oil exploitation in the Caspian Sea ten-fold in three years'
time.
Speaking with a Japanese delegation that have travelled to
Ashkhabad to attend the Japan-Turkmenistan Economic Cooperation
Committee, President Niyazov said, "Presently, relying on the
cooperation of Malaysian, Unite Arab Emirates', and German oil
companies, Turkmenistan is exploiting one million tons of oil from
its own territory of the Caspian Sea."
The Turkmen mass media also quoted Niyazov as saying that besides
three Russian oil companies, with which Turkmenistan is signing
cooperation contracts, there are Iranian firms with which his country
plans to cooperate in exploitation of its hydrocarbon resorts in the
caspian Sea.
Niyazov said that his country's oil reserves in the Caspian Sea is
12 billion tons, adding that his country is in need of the technical
assistance of the foreign firms to make optimum use of them.
Referring to the immense land and sea oil resorts of his country,
the Turkmen president said, "Turkmenistan is planning to be exploiting
between 55 to 60 million tons of gas a year by 2010, while the natural
gas exports of his country is expected to be 110 billion cubic meters
by then.
He said that presently Turkmenistan is producing one million tons
of liquefied gas annually, which is scheduled to increase to five to
six million tons during the next three years.
NA/AR
End
who cares?
klintoon n algore depleted our "petroleum reserves"....
so....prez bush should "restock...", with cheap iraqi oil...
but kalifornica will still have $2 plus gas prices...
Oh. So basically, they're not cutting their own production. They're tampering with gas prices and thus the Western economy in order to force the US to cave and allow the Axis of Weasles and UNweenies to continue receiving graft from the 'oil for food' scam.
I hope they've got enough to up production for a worldwide market and get very, very rich.
Agreed. The time has come to break the back of OPEC. We have been held economically hostage by Third World kleptocracies for too long.
Fortunately, there is a movement in the Alaska legislature to allow drilling in ANWR. Plus, there are new technologies under development that, if successful, will allow us to convert anything organic (slaughterhouse waste, garbage, plastics, etc.) into a refined light Texas crude oil.
OPEC's days are numbered, heh heh heh.
You need the Secret Decoder Ring to understand OPECKERS' press releases. What this release ACTUALLY says is that production will continue AT CURRENT LEVELS thru May. It comes at the end of the story "for techinical reasons." Here's what that means.
The technical reason is Arab Bluster over Iraq, but the pragmatists behind the scenes want to keep the oil flowing because they want the cash from it. In addition, contracts are in place for that oil. So although they SAY they are cutting production, they really aren't. They've just dialed out the Iraqi production because - at the moment - it doesn't exist. Saying that they're cutting production is a sop to the Arab Street, not actually DOING it is just good business.
Michael
Michael
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