Word: cartelized
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After four days of dispute, the meeting in Caracas broke up with hard-line hawks such as Iran, Libya, Nigeria and Algeria planning to charge a minimum of $28.50 per bbl. and perhaps $30 or even more, while other cartel members said that they intended to go no higher than $24. All in all, the rises add up to a big increase over the OPEC official maximum of $23.50 that had prevailed since summer, the $18 that Saudi Arabia, the cartel's leading producer, had posted until two weeks ago, and the $12.90 that OPEC averaged a year...
...braked. Decreasing demand for petroleum can easily stampede OPEC's members into a back-stabbing rush to hang onto their customers by offering all sorts of discounts and deals. Already there are signs that this year's 100% increase in crude oil costs is beginning to crimp cartel sales. U.S. oil imports dropped by 8.5% during November to 7.9 million bbl. daily, suggesting that the market is beginning to loosen...
...Caracas gathering itself revealed a cartel in deepening disarray over how to cope with the topsy-turvy world of petroleum. The yearlong production cutbacks in Iran have tightened supplies and stirred chaos in oil markets everywhere. Cartel members such as Algeria, Libya and Nigeria have been ignoring official OPEC price lists. Iran has been dreaming up gimmicks to lift the cost of crude under contracts already signed at lower prices. The favorite tactic: requiring customers to buy at least some oil at up to $45 per bbl. Customers who balked have been threatened with loss of their long-term supply...
Midway through the fourth day, the ministers called it quits. An exhausted Yamani pledged to hold Saudi prices firm at $24 per bbl., but he was well aware that the survival of the cartel was now in question. Said he, trying to put the best face on his defeat: "There will definitely be a [global] recession. We will notice a sharp drop in the spot market. Then there will be some sort of unification of price levels among OPEC members...
With OPEC in disarray and vulnerable, bold action by oil-importing nations to cut their dependence on foreign petroleum cannot be easily countered by cartel members. Operating through OPEC, their monopolistic, price-propping has placed an enormous and continuing burden on oil consumers everywhere. Economist Otto Eckstein, president of Data Resources Inc., estimates that OPEC'S policies have been bloating the world's oil bill by $40 billion to $60 billion a year. Says he: "We need that cartel like we need a tourniquet around our necks. Any form of free competition is going to lead...