OPEC to Cut Oil Production by 4 Percent

[Doglips]

OK who do we have to kill/invade to get some cheap oil?????

OPEC to Cut Oil Production by 4 Percent
By SUSANNA LOOF
Associated Press Writer


VIENNA, Austria (AP)--OPEC will cut its production target by 4 percent starting in April, several oil ministers said Wednesday--a move that analysts say could drive prices past the psychologically important threshold of $40 per barrel at a time when U.S. customers are already enduring high gasoline prices.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about a third of the world's oil, will reduce its output ceiling by 1 million barrels per day.

A recent surge in oil prices had led some of the group's 11 members to suggest postponing the cut, but OPEC's most influential oil minister, Saudi Arabia's Ali Naimi, prevailed in his effort to press ahead.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah had earlier suggested delaying the cut but was among those who confirmed the group's decision to trim its target to 23.5 million barrels per day starting Thursday. Ministers from Algeria, Nigeria, Libya and Qatar also confirmed the agreement, which the representatives reached in private talks ahead of a formal meeting at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna.

OPEC had agreed last month in Algiers, Algeria, to make the cut on April 1, but recent discomfort with rising prices in the United States and other importing countries had led some OPEC members to reconsider.

``We made decision to apply the Algiers decision. We're going to meet again in June ... and at that time we're going to review the market,'' Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil told reporters.

OPEC was forced to balance consumers' desire for lower oil prices with its own fears that swelling inventories and a seasonal lull in springtime demand could cause prices to plunge.

Most OPEC members are taking advantage of the current high prices by pumping as much oil as they can. Excluding Iraq, which doesn't participate in the group's quota agreements, OPEC is already exceeding its target by an estimated 1.5 million barrels.

If individual members have the discipline to reduce their actual output in line with their lower target, crude prices now could reach $40 per barrel, said Leo Drollas, chief economist of the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies.


AP-NY-03-31-04 0930EST

Copyright 2004, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[Lord Shrike]

Interesting enough I guess after you inflation adjust gas proces they are not at a record high at all. Although they are still above average in 1981 we paid in inflation adjusted dollars $2.95 for a gallon. Still this all the more reason to start drilling for oil where we have it. It won't solve the problem entirely but it would help some.

[Shaun]

we need to get anwar open and producing then we can see the prices drop to low levels again

[Rufus Rhastus J]

We have a whole country full of oil! Iraq, remember? We've paid enough for it. Cost of the war and the senseless lose of life, we've paid more than enough for the oil. Let's start pumping it out right now! They don't like it...we got a nuke with thier names on it! Let's get serious about lowering the price of gasoline! Oil companies posting record profits! Yeah, I know, the business is in business to make money but, it's the "patriotic" thing to do...help America recover! What better way than to lower fuel costs?

[Shaun]

Iraq is still part of the cartel and we have already said that the oil is for the oraqi people yes it would help us but we have to look at getting that country stabilized too

[Doglips]

Hummm stabalized...suck out all the oil..nuke it...see stable

[Shaun]

how about we carpet bomb with moabs then all we have to do is cut the glass and get it out -- no opposition this way

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Originally posted by Shaun
Iraq is still part of the cartel and we have already said that the oil is for the oraqi people yes it would help us but we have to look at getting that country stabilized too

Yank the Iraq flag down and toss it on a pile of burnig rubbish? Send OPEC a very large nuke, with our letter of resignation from the cartel. Then, we lie to the world, and our citizens, like we usually do and just add Iraq to the list of would be "protectorates" and we suck every drop of oil and cash from that filthy sand box! Now that, sounds like a plan to me! Of course, i know we can't and won't...we'll just continue to have our troops killed so that the rich can get richer and we can get more poor. I just love becomeing a third world nation. Yeah, I know, we are'nt there yet. But, it's just around the corner. Let's do some more out sourceing....that's good for America! Hey, not my words, Bush said it!

[whirlwind]

wonder why the price of the food we ship to all these arabs doesnt go up according to oil prices!? if i was in charge id let every arab nation watch about half their population starve then see if the price of oil comes down! what are they gonna do...grow corn in the sand?

[MAX7.62]

Between Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico we have plenty of oil. Using the OPEC excuse is how the oil companies drive up prices without looking like the bad guys.
If OPEC is really causing these ridiculous prices - remember who they are, think about it?
As far as I'm concerned if OPEC has cut production to drive up our prices then they have commited a corporate terrorist attack on our economy.
Uhh? hey George W., didn't you say we would whup up on anyone who directed terrorism toward America?

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Originally posted by MAX7.62
Between Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico we have plenty of oil. Using the OPEC excuse is how the oil companies drive up prices without looking like the bad guys.
If OPEC is really causing these ridiculous prices - remember who they are, think about it?
As far as I'm concerned if OPEC has cut production to drive up our prices then they have commited a corporate terrorist attack on our economy.
Uhh? hey George W., didn't you say we would whup up on anyone who directed terrorism toward America?

Only double! And let's quit talking about it! Get those planes in the air, you know, the ones with the droopy wings! Nuke 'em 'till they glow! Bombs away!

[Lord Shrike]

UInfortunately the price of gasoline is related to the overall prive of crude barrlles which OPEC can influence.

[Shaun]

Actually at the rate OPEC is going I would almost consider them economic terrorists. We are talking about a group of Arab's many of which backed Saddam or they are related to Osama. Personally I would classify them as full fledged terrorists which means they are valid members of terrorist associations requiring that we take immediate action to take them out of power.

[Lord Shrike]

Well they are a Cartel. Some of them are freindlier to us than others. I dunno they kinda got us by the short and curlies unless we find a way to either drastically increase our own production or reduce a our consumption or a combination of both. It would have to be pretty drastic though before they start loseing money.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Too bad I don't know what the cartel imports from America. If I had the power, I'd raise the tariffs 1,000%! maybe then, especially if it's food we are talking about, they will be more co-operative!

[Lord Shrike]

Tarrifs feel good but they rarely work espcially now a days. Anyone you slap a tarrif on can slap one right back on you. Since allready have a trade deficit the other side usually has the advatage. Unless you can acheive near independence resource wise you have to deal with the other guy.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Originally posted by Lord Shrike
Tarrifs feel good but they rarely work espcially now a days. Anyone you slap a tarrif on can slap one right back on you. Since allready have a trade deficit the other side usually has the advatage. Unless you can acheive near independence resource wise you have to deal with the other guy.

I'm wondering how much, percent wise, we import from "carte" countries. And, why don't we just buy more from non-"cartel" countries? And, if we don't buy the oil, just wonder-what percent of "cartel"counties oil do we import, where would they make up that lose? In other words, why not buy somewhere else? Do we have a contract? If we do, what lawyer designed the contract that allows those scum bags to change prices whenever they like? That lawyer should be killed most brutally! What if we just don't sell them anything? I bet there are plenty of people who would love our dollor. What the heck is wrong with our leaders? Why do they allow some third world sand box country to
hold an axe over our heads. Surely, there is something we can do besides bend over and thank them.

[tommy]

with the price of oil goin up the gulf should open up real sooni figure in the next 6 months they will start drillin. i guess we are headin for another big oil boom down here. they uasualy last about five years but when they do come along it means one thing everybody gonna make some money down here and all over the usa.i think that in the next year the country will be doin good as for jobs that is.it's gonna have a trickle affect on the rest of the country. so think of it this way you might pay alot for some gas but atleast you you will be workin to afford it. it might not happen over night but it will come around.

my brother works for the same offshore crane company i did and he said they been humpin it for weeks now rebuilding old cranes on platforms and installin new one's they are getting old platforms up todate for one reason (the gulf is about to open up) .

[Oxford]

The question raised above was, "What percentage of oil used domestically came from American soils?"
One source on the internet I found wrote the following:

"Persistent instability in the Middle East should teach us that
excessive reliance on foreign oil is a costly proposition - in
political, military and economic terms.

Yet, we import more foreign oil today - about 60 percent of the
oil used domestically - than we did in the 1970s when the Arab
Oil Embargo shocked our economy into a tailspin.

Despite our best efforts to conserve, our nation's total energy
needs are increasing because of continued population and
economic growth.

Looking ahead, much of this growth in demand will be satisfied
by electricity, the engine of the digital economy (computers, the
Internet, etc.) while raising the operating efficiencies of
businesses through new electrically powered technologies."

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Well, I think we need to do some conviencing, you know, the planeswith the droopy wings! Maybe a mushroom cloud over one of thier large cities, all hands lost...will help them see we mean to have all thier oil and the price better be good. Seroiusly, I still think there should be some way for us to deal with those terroists. Yes, terrorists, that's what the are.