From Opec must lift oil supply: energy report:
The price of oil will soar in the coming months, unless the Opec crude cartel ramps up output, the Centre for Global Energy Studies said in a report published on Monday.
“The world needs more oil if another price surge is to be avoided,” the London-based energy research group said in a monthly study.
The influential CGES added: “Oil prices will continue to rise over the summer unless Opec relaxes its production restraint”.
…
Meanwhile it was reported that total Opec oil production fell by 360,000 barrels per day to 30.16 million barrels per day in May, after Iranian exports returned to their long-term average levels following two months of additional sales from floating storage.
The Middle East Economic Survey reported that the May production for the ten members of Opec was down 330,000 barrels per day to 26.55 million barrels per day from April.
From Pump prices may have hit lowest point:
Two factors may halt the decline [in gasoline prices], energy experts say.
– Costs for crude oil, the raw material used to produce gasoline, have jumped 7 percent in the past month, pushed higher by violence in Nigeria. Crude oil for future delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed Tuesday at $67.77 per barrel.
– Americans like to drive around the July Fourth holiday, pushing up the demand for fuel.
Once again, worldwide oil demand and supply are on a collision course for later this year, and we could well “see some serious shit”, as Doc Brown famously said in Back to the Future.
Some prior posts on this:
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June 27th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
OPEC has the world over a barrel, figuratively and literally. Why would they produce more oil when they have tripled the price, make money hand over fist and preserve the high price of oil by restricting supply? We rave about capitalism, then when OPEC does what every capitalist does, this is not acceptable.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
The funny thing is, I remember very clearly in my economics classes (I was two rows behind Adam Smith, in case you’re wondering) how they would always say that cartels were inherently a bad idea, simply because it was too hard to impose discipline on members. If the group decided to restrain supply and drive up prices, then there would be an enormous incentive for individual members to cheat and sell more at the higher prices.
Everyone’s favorite counter example, even back then, was OPEC, in that they seemed to have enough discipline to hold together, even as some extra barrels of oil were sold here and there.
I wish all the people who scream for completely unfettered capitalism would admit that a free and fair market can only exist with government intervention to enforce the rules society considers necessary to keep the powerful from crushing the weak. Zero government regulation of markets and trade isn’t utopia, it’s anarchy.
June 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Sierra Club’s MPG Calculator (http://www.sierraclub.org/mpg/) figures out how much current fuel-saving technology could save car owners – and the environment – based on the year and make of the car and the average cost of a gallon of gas in one’s given area. There are other links for more information and ways to take action towards better fuel efficiency etc., as well.
June 30th, 2007 at 1:54 am
The Le Monde article, which I think you were talking about in another section, gives even more evidence for THE main motive to invade Iraq.
http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2721