Opec hawks want to cut oil production to keep up price

[katty]

more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4958991.ece

From The TimesOctober 17, 2008

Opec hawks want to cut oil production to keep up price

Carl Mortished, World Business Editor: Analysis

Opec’s mettle will be tested next week when the cartel assembles in Vienna at a hastily convened meeting to discuss the economic crisis and whether the exporters’ club should take action to arrest the fall in the price of crude oil. Mounting alarm over the dwindling rent from oil sales prompted Opec yesterday to bring forward an emergency meeting scheduled for mid-November to next Friday.

Together the cartel members have lost about a billion dollars of revenue a day since crude price peaked in July. The benchmark US Light crude price fell $5 per barrel on the New York Nymex exchange yesterday to $69.15 (£40.05), less than half the value at oil’s peak, while London’s Brent crude futures contract fell to $65.70.

Evidence of rising oil stocks in America and weakening demand for energy in China’s mills and workshops has speeded up oil’s decline, but there is no agreement within the cartel over price strategy. Opec hawks, such as Iran and Venezuela, want to shore up the price by turning off the taps, but neither country can afford to cut output and forgo revenues.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. They have tried this in the past...

And it has blown up in their faces, every time.

Humans. *sigh*