Word: opec
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With ample reason, nonmembers have never been especially fond of OPEC, but no one would know it from the looks of the chummy gathering in Vienna last week. Suddenly oil-country diplomats who only a few years ago would have been mortified to be seen cooperating with OPEC were showing up and making conciliatory gestures. A Chinese official was there, chatting with his counterpart from Mexico during a photo session. An oil-patch emissary from Texas mingled on the sidelines with ministers from Malaysia and other countries. Even an observer from the petrol-pumping province of Alberta, Canada, joined...
...first time in the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that the group has met officially with ministers from nonmember states, in this case Angola, China, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Malaysia and Oman. As the oil czars gathered, the petroleum industry watched and wondered: Was a new, super-OPEC forming? Just the prospect of the meeting had sent the price of West Texas intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, rising more than $3.50 per bbl. during the previous two months, to a peak of almost $19 before the gathering. But after conferring for six days last week, the ministers were...
...last one, in 1986, sent prices plunging below $10 a bbl. This year another glut is surging forth, depressing prices of Persian Gulf crude from $18 a bbl. in December to about $13 currently. The causes: a warm winter in Europe and an increase in production among non-OPEC countries, ranging from Angola to Yemen...
...even those maverick producers seem ready to consider tightening their spigots. Last week in London, petroleum experts from non-OPEC countries met in an emergency session to discuss ways to mop up the glut. But OPEC is unlikely to follow suit. Saudi Arabia's Hisham Nazer and other oil ministers seem hesitant to discuss cutbacks, since some OPEC members flout existing quotas...
Analysts said the tentative deal's major weakness was that it was unlikely to halt overproduction by OPEC members such as Iraq and the United Arab Emirates...