OPEC likely won't move to boost oil price amid infighting

[SpartanDem]

Source: Olympian

Cheap oil that could get even cheaper: That's the challenge OPEC ministers face as they try to cut their losses at a time when supply is outstripping demand.

But their hands appear tied.

Ahead of their meeting Friday, there is recognition that the 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will be unable to nudge up prices, at least in the short term.

Non-OPEC countries like Russia and the U.S. continue to challenge OPEC for customers. And within the cartel, Iran and Iraq want to start pumping more, even though regional rival Saudi Arabia appears unwilling to play along by reducing its own output.




Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/news/business/article47697805.html

[happyslug]

1. OPEC has been called the Tail of the Dog Known as Saudi Arabia

It is what Saudi Arabia produces that sets world wide oil prices. OPEC is where Saudi Arabia tries to get the other oil producers to work with it, but when only one of the top three oil producers (and it has been the same top three since the 1950s) are in OPEC, Saudi Arabia sets the price by how much oil it will produce.

Please note the other two top producers are Russia and the USA. The USA was the world top producers till the 1980s (yes, the US was the world top producer of oil AND still imported oil in the 1970s). Since the 1980s, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US have switch the top, second and third places on the list, but all remain in the top three list.

Now, the US is still an oil importer, thus not a factor in world wide oil price (The US MAY have become a factor, if Shale Oil could be sold at a profit at these low prices, but that is NOT possible). Russia is a top producer, and the second largest EXPORTER of oil, followed by Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and United Arab Emirates (The following chart EXCLUDES Iraq for Iraq could not legally export oil from Desert Storm in the early 1990s till after the fall of Saddam in 2003:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_exports

In fact between Russia and Saudi Arabia they export more oil then the next 10 exporters combined. Thus the world wide price of oil is set by these two oil exporters based on how much they what to export. A serious drop in exports of either country will drop world wide supply and thus the price of oil.

[kacekwl]

2. Funny,

gas in Illinois went up 34 cents per gal overnite.

[saturnsring]

3. in cleveland ohio we cant get it for 1.78