OPEC to cut Production

Looks like OPEC developed a taste for high prices.
Now that things have settled down a bit, they are gearing up to cut production and push prices back up.

With oil prices flirting with seven-month lows, OPEC's president said Thursday that the group is considering an emergency meeting to discuss the possibility of cutting output.

“We are toying with the idea of an emergency meeting,” said Edmund Daukoru, a Nigerian oil minister who is also serving as president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

A Financial Times report on Thursday said OPEC has informally agreed to cut output 4 per cent in coming weeks to defend the $50 to $55 per barrel price range. It cited an unnamed OPEC official.

Dow Jones Newswires, citing an unidentified OPEC governor, said OPEC ministers agreed to cut one million barrels a day from its current oil production levels, with Saudi Arabia cutting 300,000 barrels per day, effective as soon as possible.

I wonder if that "Unnamed Offical" would happen to be Mr Chavez?
This next bit fuels my suspitions:

Mr. Daukoru said OPEC members would only agree on a formal position on oil cuts after consultations. But he said Venezuela has already promised to announce a cut of 50,000 barrels per day.

Source

Personally, I'm an advocate for higher oil prices since it helps reduce consumption, but I can also see this sort of market move feeding the global hostilities that are driving so much conflict these days.

Anyway, enjoy the current (compairitively) cheep oil, 'cause it doesn't look like it's going to last.

What happened to the "Gas prices will drop to 2 dollars a gallon by Thanksgiving".

I guess that just went out the window.

like ive been saying on this site, oil prices will skyrocket. our government will go to iran and it will be worse than vietnam. countrries will gang up on u.s.a. when the price of gas goes up everything else goes up. u.s.a. gets crippled from less gas. the u.s.a in trouble cause not enough oil to run transportation. gee, the next 5 years will be hell. hope im wrong. anyone hear anything happenning in the gulf.

Originally posted by littlebird
like ive been saying on this site, oil prices will skyrocket. our government will go to iran and it will be worse than vietnam. countrries will gang up on u.s.a. when the price of gas goes up everything else goes up. u.s.a. gets crippled from less gas. the u.s.a in trouble cause not enough oil to run transportation. gee, the next 5 years will be hell. hope im wrong. anyone hear anything happenning in the gulf.

US dosen't do anything about Iran, to keep oil prices down, Iran developes nuclear bombs, sells them to terrorists who then blow up NY, LA, Houstan, and DC.. US gets crippled. No need for gas or oil. The next 5 years are going to be hell. Anyone hear anything happening in the gulf.

Originally posted by steve99
Iran developes nuclear bombs, sells them to terrorists who then blow up NY, LA, Houstan, and DC.. US gets crippled. No need for gas or oil. The next 5 years are going to be hell. Anyone hear anything happening in the gulf.

What makes you think that they would have the need to wait specifically for Iran to make Nukes , when there have been outlets available for several years if not more in the former Soviet states that had suitcase nukes already pre-made as well as tons of old nuclear warheads and spent fuel rods? Are nuclear weapons Hallal or something that they would need for a muslim to produce it for them to use?

What about Pakistan? If Khan was supposedly so hot to trot about selling nuclear tech, then he could have sold them nuke stuff ages ago as well. That country is rabidly islamic probably just as much as Iran is.


Everything runs on Oil or uses an oil by-product... practically everything. Tires, Vaseline, Electric plants, Cars, Trucks, Buses, trains, Records for record players, UPS,Fedex, your local bread and milk delivery guys, Truckers that deliver your fruit and veggies, your local restaurants and supermarkets that rely on deliveries....you hurt the oil and it gets passed to us from all different directions. They won't need a nuke to mess us up. If oil were to hit 200.00 a bbl you would be paying 2.00 for a cup of coffee, 3.00 for a loaf of bread, 7.00 a gal of gas, a head of lettuce would be 2.50, Orange Juice would be 5.00 a half gallon, and Milk would be 6.00-8.00 a gallon. Everyone would be asking for raises to cover the expenses, companies would lay people off, cut back on production, which would make prices even higher. It would be a nightmare.

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
What makes you think that they would have the need to wait specifically for Iran to make Nukes , when there have been outlets available for several years if not more in the former Soviet states that had suitcase nukes already pre-made as well as tons of old nuclear warheads and spent fuel rods? Are nuclear weapons Hallal or something that they would need for a muslim to produce it for them to use?

Very true. "Lost" nukes are way more dangerous than anything any nation could produce simply because we don't know where they are and have no means to track them. A country producing nuclear weapons can atleast be watched.

Wanna be afraid of a nuclear threat? Be afraid of this:

Although lacking in many specific details, Lebed told "60 Minutes" that the 1 kiloton weapons, once assigned to the Spetsnaz special forces of the former Soviet Union, are especially dangerous because they can be transported and detonated by a single person. Made in the form of a suitcase, he said these devices are not protected by launch codes and could be prepared in approximately 30 minutes, potentially killing 50,000 to 100,000 people if detonated in a large city. Lebed said he attempted to make an inventory of the weapons while he was Security Council secretary but was unable to complete it before being fired by President Boris Yeltsin in October 1996.

Source

What about Pakistan? If Khan was supposedly so hot to trot about selling nuclear tech, then he could have sold them nuke stuff ages ago as well. That country is rabidly islamic probably just as much as Iran is.

Let's not forget North Korea and their well known nuclear weapons program. They don't even attempt to hide it.

Let's also attempt to remember that even the IISS doesn't believe that Iran could realisticly produce a single nuclear weapon before the end of the decade:

A 2005 assessment by the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded "if Iran threw caution to the wind, and sought a nuclear weapon capability as quickly as possible without regard for international reaction, it might be able to produce enough HEU for a single nuclear weapon by the end of this decade, assuming no technical problems. More plausible development programmes Iran could choose to follow would take over a decade"

Source

Everything runs on Oil or uses an oil by-product... practically everything. Tires, Vaseline, Electric plants, Cars, Trucks, Buses, trains, Records for record players, UPS,Fedex, your local bread and milk delivery guys, Truckers that deliver your fruit and veggies, your local restaurants and supermarkets that rely on deliveries....you hurt the oil and it gets passed to us from all different directions. They won't need a nuke to mess us up. If oil were to hit 200.00 a bbl you would be paying 2.00 for a cup of coffee, 3.00 for a loaf of bread, 7.00 a gal of gas, a head of lettuce would be 2.50, Orange Juice would be 5.00 a half gallon, and Milk would be 6.00-8.00 a gallon. Everyone would be asking for raises to cover the expenses, companies would lay people off, cut back on production, which would make prices even higher. It would be a nightmare.

Well said. People in general don't understand exactly how reliant we've become on oil. You mentioned how the price of fruits and vegitables would rise as a result of increased shipping costs, but most people don't realize that even the production costs would jump dramaticly. Almost all fertalizers and pestacides used in farming these days are oil/hydrocarbon based. Squeeze the oil supply and you squeeze the food supply.

Beyond that, every form of plastic is based on oil. The keyboard I'm tying on, the monator housing I'm looking at, even the chair I'm sitting in are all mostly based on oil.

There is hardly a single element of our day-to-day lives that isn't impacted by oil.

This is what makes OPEC such a powerful force.
Surely you haven't failed to notice that the "Axis of Evil" list very closely resembles the OPEC member's list, yeah?

Hehehe... this is just Iran wanting to harm the US...

Both Iran, Opec's second largest producer, and Algeria have publicly endorsed the proposal made on Thursday.
[ex/]
link: news.bbc.co.uk...

However, there is one problem, Mr. Ahmaidiot: your country is going to become irrelevant for the US as we are ceasing to use fossil fuels and choosing nuclear energy instead.

If Europe wants to remain dependent on oil and natural gas, that's their problem. But Iran's target is the US, so they're not going to get any more money for military buildup.