Oil falls ahead of Opec meeting

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Oil prices fell to a five-month low as traders anticipated that Opec would maintain its current production levels when it meets later in Vienna.

Comments by chief producer Saudi Arabia that the market was "fairly well-balanced" suggested that output would be unchanged.

Oil prices fell more than $2, with Brent crude at $101.27 and US light, sweet crude at $103.85.

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Arriving for the meeting, the Venezuelan energy minister said he would support keeping production levels unchanged.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7605584.stm

[ohio2007]

1. Oil falls below $100 a barrel ahead of Opec meeting

Oil prices slumped to below $100 a barrel today ahead of the start of today's Opec meeing in Vienna, putting more pressure on the oil producers' cartel to cut supply to the markets. The fall to $99.56 a barrel takes the price of crude to a five-month low and below the pyschologically significant $100 a barrel level, which was last seen in April. However, most analysts believe that the oil producers will elect to maintain the current level of production, which is favoured by Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the cartel.

Oil prices have now been falling for two weeks consistently, despite a short-lived rally yesterday on the back of concerns over the impact of Hurricane Ike in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4714253.ece

Just need to keep up the open up offshore drilling rhetoric and OPEC will drop the price further to keep their best customer fixed like a crack addict

Oil bubble will burst soon, says Lehman report
25 April 2008

Mumbai: The oil boom is on its last leg and may last a few months before a clutch of new refineries start operations amid slackening economic growth across the world, consultancy firm and investment bank Lehman Brothers has predicted in a report.

The report said supply is in fact outpacing demand growth even as inventories have been building up for quite some time now. This announcement must surely come as a huge relief for consumers reeling under high oil prices for some time now.


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http://www.domain-b.com/industry/oil_gas/20080425_oil_boom.html