OPEC chief: Oil prices would go higher regardless of supply

[Shoelace]

Source: Associated Press

By MARIA GRAZIA MURRU – 1 hour ago

ROME (AP) — OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah el al-Badri said Sunday oil prices would likely go higher and that the group was ready to raise production if the price pressure was due to a shortage of supply — something he doubted.
"Oil prices, there is a common understanding that has nothing to do with supply and demand," al-Badri said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Rome. Oil prices reached a new high Friday at $117 a barrel.

A host of supply and demand concerns in the U.S. and abroad, along with the dollar's weakness, have served to support prices, even as record retail gasoline prices in the U.S. appear to be dampening demand. Crude prices have risen as much as 4 percent last week.

The OPEC chief said the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries "will not hesitate" to increase production if the group thought the higher prices were due to shortages. But he said more oil will not solve the high prices. OPEC's production levels were just one of many factors, he said.

"But how much higher it will go, of course it depends on a number of things: the political situation, whether there is a natural catastrophe, whether there are speculations in the market, whether there are strikes in certain producing countries. So there are many other factors other than OPEC production," al-Badri said.






Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLVuPwZjeYAT_dFozet0AikkSkwQD905PEUG0

[Robbien]

1. Speculation in the market

I vote for that one.\

Hedgers are happily having a field day throwing tons of money around on their oil commodity bets.

[ladjf]

2. It's called price fixing. Easy to do in monopolistic situations.

[BadgerLaw2010]

3. Nuke his ass and take the gas? This is price fixing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. translation:

"remember all that supply and demand bullshit we used for excuses to raise gas prices all these years?".

" We've stopped the bullshit-Enron taught us how to manipulate
prices openly ".

" Papa and all the Bush boys gotta have some cash when then they flee the country in 2009....pony up the bucks, suckers"

[Junkdrawer]

5. "You see, when you have a monopoly (or an effective cartel) it's What the Market will Bear"...

"And hurricane Katrina taught us that the market will bear FAR more than we ever dreamed."

How's that for Chutzpa?

[Shoelace]

11. not to mention China, India's increasing demand

and our falling dollar, and what the heck happened to all that oil in Iraq?

[minavasht]

17. You do realize that there is limited supply

of oil in the world and they stopped making more millions of years ago?
Selling it is the biggest source of revenue for those countries and the supplies are limited.
And you expect them to lower the price? Why would they do that? If Saudi Arabia keeps the same rate of production it will dry out in 80 years. In 20 years half of the major producers will be dry.
If you want to use their oil, you will have to pay their price - it is that simple.
You don't like it? Find a different way to drive your car and you will not have to buy oil any more.
It is that simple.

[Junkdrawer]

20. I weep for the British/American/Saudi oil tycoons.

I weep harder for the millions killed so that we can get their oil - and sell it at predatory prices.

[Zynx]

6. In terms of inventory to sales ratios, he is right. There is no shortage.

Speculation has far outstripped any fundamentals, including currency.

[Turbineguy]

7. Speculation due to

political uncertainty.

276 days and counting....

[roamer65]

8. OPEC can't significantly raise production.

Most members that produce sweet light crude are pumping all out as we speak.

[Taitafalcon]

9. OPEC and Extortion

Well by that definition, we should 1) decrease our dependence on foreign oil, 2) increase pumping our own vast reserves. For the most part, we the American people have/are doing our part; we're buying smaller cars, we're turning out lights, we're driving less, we're consolidating our trips in the family vehicle and other measures.

We're being duped, lied to, robbed and ripped off by a number of forces with conflicting positions. There are new technologies out there and the big, bad anti-environmental boogy-man can be contained. But we really shouldn't let foreign governments dictate our economic fate. We been on 'cruise control' with our own government for too long. It's time to quit cheering for the team with the right sounding title and vote our interests - including replacement of some long term names in the senate and house. Need I mention the executive branch - cuz obviously they don't care about the people who vote for them and pay their salaries.(of course that's an oxymoron, only rich people can run for the major offices so our taxpayer money means nothing to them except our tax funded healthcare we ourselves can't get)

[Shipwack]

10. Yes and... no.

Agreed, we should decrease our dependence on foreign oil, but we don't have any "vast reserves".

The majority of our oil is heavy in sulfur, not light sweet crude.

Even if we started drilling in Alaska and off the coast of Florida, it'd be a drop in the bucket.

And I don't think we're conserving more these days to any great extent, though I'd be happy to see any figures cited to be proven wrong.

[hatrack]

13. What vast reserves would those be?

The United States contains about 2.5% of the planet's proven reserves. Saudi Arabia has, oh gosh, something like 30% and the Middle East as a whole about 60%.

So, again, what vast reserves would those be? Fields bigger than Ghawar, bigger than Cantarell, bigger than Samotlor, Burgan and Prudhoe Bay that have somehow escaped our attention as America became, over the course of the past 100 years, the most intensively drilled and explored nation on the planet?

What vast reserves? Please, enlighten me.

[Shoelace]

16. ahhh, you know - the "vast reserves" under Greenland icecap or..

something like that, lol. While Bush, Cheney and the Oil boyz wait for it all to thaw, they've got their eyes on the prize, the "vast reserves" of taxpayer dollars it would take to get to any of it. Building pipelines make them billions and billions what with all the graft and corruption therein. :grr:

[newfie11]

12. very true!

[NickB79]

14. Saudis put off longer-term oil capacity rise

"Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, has put on hold plans to increase long-term production capacity from its vast oil fields beyond existing proposals, its most powerful policymakers have said.

In a series of statements, including one by the king himself, the kingdom has warned consumers it does not reckon there is a need for further expansion beyond 12.5m barrels a day, an assumption disputed by the world’s biggest developed countries."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/36b36e2a-0efe-11dd-9646-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1


Listen very carefully, people. SAUDI ARABIA HAS HIT PEAK OIL!!! They refuse to let anyone see their true reserve numbers, they keep claiming there is no need for more supply on the market, and now they've given up trying to increase capacity. This is all consistent with a country attempting to hide the fact that their production ability has peaked, so as not to startle the herds of sheeple into a stampede.

[Junkdrawer]

22. ...and to mask the Saudi/NeoCon motives in Iraq. n/t

[OKthatsIT]

15. Where's the majority Democrat Congress when you need them?

Come on...Dont you think its time to throw out the impotent politicians who don't even notice?

[lakeguy]

19. they probably won't hear you...

since you can't even call them using the correct name.

[BigDaddy44]

24. Can they repeal the laws of supply and demand?

[ckramer]

18. Beautiful.

I don't like these tall SUVs blocking my front view.

[MadHound]

21. IE, we can't raise our production, so the US is going to have to learn how to live with it

We have seen the peak of cheap oil, and it is quickly disappearing in the rear view mirror. The large oil fields in the ME are having their last oil sucked dry, and it is becoming imperative that the US finds some other alternative. The best alternative I know is biodiesel, using algae as the feedstock. The only major drawback is the nitric oxide coming out the tailpipe, but with a little filter engineering, we can control that problem.

We can make all the biodiesel we need, and not use a single acre of cropland. All we need is aprox. 15,000 square miles of water surface, and much of that can be provided by wastewater treatment ponds.

This is but one in a long line of red lights that we really need to pay attention to.

[Javaman]

23. aka we have you by the balls and well that's just fine with us. nt