OPEC Members Seek $100 Oil to Counter Dollar Weakness

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wacky petro-dollar hijinks!
:woohoo:

The 13 percent decline in the Dollar Index since June has led some OPEC members to call for oil to rise to $100 a barrel.

The U.S. currency’s weakness means the “real price” of oil is about $20 less than current levels, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after yesterday’s meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. The group, which accounts for 40 percent of global crude output, left targets unchanged and called for greater adherence to quotas, which are being exceeded by a supertanker load a day.

“OPEC is not interested in compliance right now,” Nordine Ait-Laoussine, the former Algerian oil minister who now runs Geneva-based consultant Nalcosa SA, said in an interview in Vienna. “They’re concerned about the dollar because as the dollar weakens, prices go up. They’re not paying any attention to production discipline.”

The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six U.S. trading partners, was at 76.54 at 2:27 p.m. in London today, near its lowest level since December, from a 2010 high of 88.405 on June 7. It has dropped 6.1 percent in the past month. The nominal value of OPEC’s net oil export revenue will be $818 billion in 2011, 10 percent more than this year, according to U.S. Energy Department forecasts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-15/opec-members-seek-100-a-barrel-oil-as-sliding-dollar-cuts-real-revenue.html

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1. oy. nt