Word: cartelizing
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Conservation, cartel-style: less production, more profit
When the oil ministers of the world's least beloved cartel jet into Caracas next week for their final sock-it-to-'em meeting of the decade, there will be some important and worrisome differences from past gatherings. OPEC will be fixing prices against a backdrop of almost unprecedented global upset brought on in large part by its own actions. More than that, in its headlong rush for profits, the 13-nation cartel has been rapidly losing even the appearance of self-control over pricing and production...
...been sent soaring to ever increasing heights. Meanwhile, global economic growth has stalled and the international financial system itself has been thrown into turmoil. In 1980, oil-importing nations expect to hit what economic jargoneers have labeled a "synchronized recession." Now no one can be sure how high the cartel will push oil prices beyond their present official maximum of $23.50 per bbl., but demand for petroleum makes a substantial increase certain. Single shipments of crude are being sold on the spot market for as much as $40 to $45 per bbl. This shows just how much people are prepared...
...have all announced cutback plans for 1980, and others are likely to follow. Warns Gulf Oil Corp. President James Lee: "We estimate that OPEC could cut its exports by about 8 million bbl. per day, or nearly 25%, and still maintain balanced economies for its members." Reason: as the cartel sold less oil, the price for the diminished supply would automatically surge...
...outlook is clouded for OPEC itself, especially for the so-called dollar-surplus states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates and Qatar, which together hold more than $90 billion in U.S. dollars and other U.S. financial assets that will continue to slip in value as the cartel's prices climb. These surplus states probably will not go along with any effort to dump the dollar as the currency of the world oil trade, a move that would undermine the value of the greenbacks they already hold. But Iran and Libya are urging OPEC to switch from dollars...