04-15-2008, 01:51 PM
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Viva Fidel
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Userid: 107 Location: Imperialist Britain
Age: 23
Posts: 4,665
Rep Power: 6
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British PM to meet Bush
What is this "collective action" ? Another war ? Coups against oil producing states ? The best way to push down prices of course is to reduce demand, stop the excessive consumption, but of course that is out of the question as that won't feed the capitalists.
Quote:
Britain and the United States blame OPEC for record high oil prices that have exacerbated a global economic slowdown, but some analysts believe the cause for oil's run-up may lie closer to home. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. President George W. Bush, both struggling to boost their slumping popularity, have pressed OPEC countries to open their taps to help ease oil prices. But some analysts believe oil is being driven more by a battered dollar, weakened by a U.S. housing market collapse and credit crunch.
"Traditionally, speculators and OPEC ... are an easy scapegoat, but I think it's totally unfair," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix.
Oil climbed to a record high of $113.93 on Tuesday, up 17 percent from the start of the year.
Brown, who is to fly to the United States on Wednesday for talks with Bush, said he wanted to develop a collective plan to bring down oil prices.
"We are not producing enough oil ... and we can take collective action to persuade OPEC and others to get the oil price down," Brown said in an interview on Sky Television.
Bush has also repeatedly urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to supply more oil.
"I think politicians are trying to talk down the oil price because obviously it's putting a squeeze on western economies," said Richard Batty, investment director at Standard Life Investments.
THE BUCK STOPS HERE
Analysts say politicians are ignoring the influence the global economy, especially the dollar, is having on oil.
"The energy markets seem to be completely wrapped up in the dollar's near-term prospects," said MF Global Energy in its daily research note.
The dollar has fallen to record lows against the euro, dragged lower by fears about the U.S. economy.
A weak dollar tends to raise prices for commodities denominated in that currency. They become relatively cheap for non-dollar buyers and offer investors, such as pension funds, an inflation hedge.
"OPEC could increase production by 500,000 barrels per day tomorrow, but that would not necessarily stop pension funds from buying into commodities," Jakob said.
OPEC has ignored pressure from oil-consuming countries to boost production and its biggest member Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter, has curbed supplies in response to weaker demand.
A Saudi oil source said on Friday Saudi Arabia had trimmed its output by about 200,000 bpd to 9 million bpd.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also said last week that high oil prices were unrelated to supply.
"I am not going to pull back. I'm not going to dump crude on the market," he told reporters.
In its monthly report, OPEC on Tuesday forecast world oil demand would decline by 1.4 million bpd to 85.7 million bpd in the second quarter, when oil use typically slows as consumers in the northern hemisphere burn less heating fuel.
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Viva Fidel
If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism
They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?
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