Word: opec
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What do these insiders see that Wall Street doesn't? Are they thinking that oil prices can fall no lower than they have? Do they know something about OPEC that we don't? No. What these executives see is that their stocks' prices reflect overly pessimistic assumptions by Wall Street--just as those stocks reflected overly optimistic assumptions when many of the same insiders were selling frantically a year ago, for double and triple today's prices...
...words in the headlines seemed vaguely familiar: OPEC meeting, oil output curtailed, prices rising. But if you are having haunting visions of long lines and $2.50-per-gal. gasoline, relax. When representatives of oil-producing countries meet in Vienna this week, they will try to avert the disaster that was arising because prices have been collapsing. Asia's stalled economies and a very warm winter have cut oil consumption way below what was projected for 1998. Result: a 50% plunge in oil prices from early 1997, to $13.31 per bbl. And with storage tanks brimming, the price looked poised...
...world's oil exporters were suddenly looking at a loss of revenues that could have exceeded $100 billion. That's enough petrodollars to get otherwise reluctant countries to negotiate, including OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and non-OPEC Mexico. Their plan: cut back production to firm prices. And OPEC's tried-and-true remedy may work again. News of a pending deal pulled prices up to almost $17 a barrel last week. The market response indicates confidence that the exporters will make their cuts stick. And if they don't, prices will fall again...
...Arabia, the world's largest producer, didn't care to cut production in support of prices only to end up merely making room for others to capture its business. Venezuela, on a high-octane drive to double production within a decade, was not about to cut back unless non-OPEC countries shared the pain.That insistence reflects reality: OPEC accounts for only 55% of total world crude-oil exports. In fact, the second largest exporter is nonmember Norway...
...From Algeria to Venezuela, countries that were formerly closed to exploration and production by foreign companies are reopening their doors. This hardly means the disappearance of politics and security issues--the Persian Gulf War demonstrates that--but these are not the day-to-day drivers anymore. So even though OPEC governments meet to ratify production cutbacks, it is the market that now has the power...