Word: crude
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Whenever the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries get together, two things seem certain: they will bicker vociferously among themselves, and then they will raise the price of their precious crude. That is precisely what happened at the OPEC oil ministers' 57th meeting last week at the El Aurassi hotel in Algiers. After lavish feasting on caviar and couscous, the oil ministers argued until 3 a.m. but then reached a compromise that allowed some of them to push the price of oil still higher. The 13 countries decided to set a price ceiling...
...countries like Libya and Algeria did not push theirs higher, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Venezuela announced that they would begin demanding as much as $2 per bbl. more for oil on July 1. Those four countries have been recently charging a basic price of about $30 per bbl. for crude. Saudi Arabia refused to increase its rates for now, but Yamani hinted that he might raise them by $1 per bbl. to $4 per bbl. in order to unify OPEC prices. Some oil experts expect the Saudis to hike prices by about $2 per bbl. within a few weeks...
Last week's meeting underscored again the weakened role of Saudi Arabia inside OPEC. While that country still pumps one-third of all OPEC production, it can no longer solely determine world oil policy. Prior to the Iranian revolution, Saudi Arabia virtually dictated crude prices because it had surplus production and could threaten to drive the cost of crude down if the other countries did not follow its lead. Now the Saudis are pumping oil at the rate of 9.5 million bbl. per day, which is 1 million more than before the fall of the Shah of Iran...
...amount of bribery of public officials is enormous," notes Berkeley Economist Gregory Grossman, an expert on the illegal Soviet economy. "It is an extremely corrupt society where graft and bribery of officials is enormously widespread and where stealing on the job is commonplace and far more sophisticated than crude break-ins or thefts at state warehouses." One of the biggest frauds of the 1970s was the caviar caper, in which officials of the Soviet Ministry of Fisheries shipped expensive black caviar abroad in large cans marked "smoked herring." Western firms cooperating in the fraud repacked and resold the caviar. They...
...which operates a 160,000 bbl.-per-day Puerto Rico refinery, for $650 million. And last week it was completing plans to build a 100,000 bbl.-per-day refinery in Alaska, as well as sewing up the rights to 75,000 bbl. per day of North Slope crude...