Oil Falls Before OPEC Discusses Output Cut to Stem Price Slump

[ben_meyers]

Source: Bloomberg

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell in New York trading amid speculation a potential production cut by OPEC to support prices may be trumped by concerns over declining demand amid a worsening U.S. recession.

OPEC members may consider a reduction at their meeting this weekend in Cairo to stabilize the market, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said yesterday. Crude oil futures traded in New York have slumped 63 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

“People are waiting to see if there any cuts coming out of this meeting,” said Chris Jarvis, president of Caprock Risk Management LLC in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. “Though at this point it’s really about economic numbers. OPEC doesn’t really have control over pricing right now.”

Crude oil for January delivery fell 65 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $53.79 a barrel at 8:10 a.m. Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex was open for electronic trading only yesterday because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Futures closed at $54.44 on Nov. 26 after rising 7.2 percent. (snip)

“We doubt OPEC can materially alter either market fundamentals or sentiment near-term,” Merrill Lynch & Co. oil analyst Alastair Syme said in a Nov. 26 report. “In a rapidly falling demand environment we see little that suppliers can do to either reverse sentiment or tighten market fundamentals.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aubu7pV08Yds&refer=home

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Damn Bush and his oil buddies.

[bullimiami]

1. opec didnt seem to see a problem when oil was 140 and heading up.

[Spouting Horn]

3. Crashing oil markets

are definitely not in the best interest of Hugo Chavez, considering his budgets are based on $100 (and more) oil.

[doc03]

2. This goes to prove if we went on an all out

Manhattan style project to reduce our consumption of oil the price would continue to go down. If we could eliminate the internal combustion engine in passenger cars and trucks as a side benefit fuel oil to heat our homes would go down, diesel for trucks and locomotives would be cheaper, electric rates would drop.