Oil

U.S. oil refiner ConocoPhillips turned down an offer to take extra oil from top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia because the oil was too heavy a grade, a trader at the company said on Tuesday.

Crude oil futures rose on concern that a promised Saudi Arabian production rise and any Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries quota increase at a meeting next week won’t meet rising demand.

The Oil and Gas Journal published on May 17th an article by Mr Sadad al-Husseini, who was until recently an Executive Vice-President of Saudi Aramco. He refers to the doubts raised by ASPO regarding the validity of the 260 Gb (billion barrels) claimed by the country as remaining reserves, admitting that a policy of withholding technical information has given grounds for uncertainty.

In the June issue of National Geographic, you can read an article called, “The End Of Cheap Oil.” For the opposite perspective, read “Never Cry Wolf — Why The Petroleum Age Is Far From Over” in the current issue of Science.

THE United States has managed to thrive despite high budget deficits and a staggering level of international indebtedness. Can it also thrive if oil prices remain above $40 a barrel and gasoline costs more than $2 a gallon at the pump?

The following article was first published by Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday 23 May 2004.
 
Oil is scarcer than ever.  The price for petrol is at record levels.  The economy, consumers and of course politicians are all worried.  Therefore, an urgent appeal to oil producing countries has been made to pump more into the market so that prices once again fall.  As in the past, this could happen again; but next year, perhaps, no longer, and thereafter, never again.
 

THE producers’ cartel that governs world oil supplies last night admitted it had lost control of the latest price rise as oil bubbled back up to near-record highs.