Word: cartelism
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...ever present danger of a cut in supplies. With spot prices now hovering at $40 or more per bbl., nearly twice the maximum official OPEC price of $23.50 for oil sold under contracts of three months or more, OPEC members are clamoring for a hefty new increase when the cartel meets in Caracas on Dec. 17. Notes a top Carter Administration official: "Spot prices are the locomotive now dragging OPEC prices along." Adds Data Resources' Eckstein: "Our present forecast has OPEC prices going to $26 per bbl. during 1980, as a result of the current situation in Iran...
Worse, Soviet oil production is falling below the target set in the 1976-80 five-year plan, and Moscow has begun to put a ceiling on its shipments. The East Europeans find it difficult to get more from OPEC because the cartel does not want to sell for Communist currencies. What can OPEC do with zlotys or rubles...
...jumpy and uncontrolled spot market, that loose network of brokers and hustlers who buy and sell available crude wherever they can for whatever the market will bear. OPEC sells most of its oil under contracts that can run from a month to a year or more, but cartel leaders watch the day-to-day spot market closely; when spot quotes climb, insatiable oil producers begin demanding more for their shipments...
...spot market chaos will fuel demands for a big new surge in official OPEC prices when the cartel meets in Caracas on Dec. 17. Already Algeria and Libya have pushed their prices beyond the ceilings set by OPEC in June, and last week Nigeria jumped to $26.27 per bbl. Oil executives now gloomily forecast that the official OPEC ceiling could soon reach $28 to $30 per bbl., raising the U.S. energy import bill from some $65 billion this year to as much as $90 billion next year...
...OPEC nations go, so go the countries that pump the approximately 40% of the free world crude that is not under the cartel's control: last week both Britain and Canada moved toward higher prices that will keep the cost of their oil in line with, or even a little ahead of, what OPEC is currently getting...