Word: cartelism
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...much for the good news. Even as the supply shortage begins to look somewhat less menacing, the familiar and appalling threat is looming of yet another price rampage by the other members of the 13-nation OPEC cartel. Now as in 1973-74, the danger is that rocketing fuel prices will aggravate inflation, force governments to fight back by clamping down on domestic growth, and for the second time in a decade plunge the world economy into an oil-greased slide...
...prices will go much higher than that if OPEC's prices also keep climbing. The run-up has already sparked fears that the entire cartel, which only last December announced a general 1979 increase of 14.5%, will soon declare yet another boost in order to keep from breaking up in a mad scramble after ever higher prices. As if to sanctify the money grab, OPEC headquarters in Vienna announced that individual price adjustments by members were perfectly all right "in light of their prevailing circumstances...
Much of what the cartel does now will depend on Saudi Arabia, whose share of OPEC oil production has soared from 26% to 34% since the Iranian cutback. The Saudis have long been regarded as the principal force for price restraint in the cartel, but statements from Riyadh last week were discouraging. After calling for urgent OPEC consultations, the Saudi government merely promised that it would not raise prices until after the end of March. Oilmen read that as a plan to boost in early April...
...million bbl. per day, the net world loss of 2.5 million bbl. has still started what some oilmen describe as a wild scramble for crude in the free market. Since mid-December the spot price has nearly doubled, to at least $22 a barrel, vs. the OPEC cartel's price of $13.34. This windfall profit for European oil companies and oil traders acting as middlemen has riled the producing nations, which once again are wielding their monopoly power. They want higher prices for all their oil. "The oil companies are making excessive profits," insists Mani Said Utaiba...
...contract prices. On the open or "spot" market, where the small percentage of oil not sold under contract is available, frenzied demand has sent prices up to more than $23 per bbl. Further whetting OPEC greed, Britain has boosted its price for North Sea oil by 2% above the cartel level...