Report: OPEC production fell in March

[phantom power]

NEW YORK, NV, United States (UPI) -- Output last month from the world oil cartel`s 11 members, including Iraq, fell last month.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries produced an average 29.76 million barrels per day of crude in March, down 160,000 barrels per day from February`s 29.92 million, oil industry analyst Platts said Tuesday.

Excluding Iraq, production from the 10 members with quotas fell by 190,000 barrels per day to 27.94 million barrels per day and below the official 28-million-barrels-per-day output ceiling.

(...)

'Even with oil prices well above $60/barrel, OPEC doesn`t appear to be trying to make up for the fall in Nigerian volumes, which supports the view that OPEC-10 production is constrained around the level of the 28 million b/d official ceiling,' wrote John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1154437.php/Report_OPEC_production_fell_in_March

[bullimiami]

1. we are being had. if bush was a real pro american maniac instead of

a crook, he would be screaming about invading saudi arabia and kuwait for the crap they are pulling. but he is in on the scam.

[phantom power]

2. I disagree. I think this is the real deal. We're passing the peak.

I don't understand the "price gouging" theory. OPEC could have done price-gouging at any time in the last 20 years. Not so very long ago, oil was selling for $20/barrel. Nobody was reducing production back then. Why now?

Why now, and why so much? I mean, $30/barrel might be gouging. $70/barrel is self-destructive. Any good parasite knows to avoid killing the host.

[Strelnikov_]

3. "The Texas Railroad Commission Announced A 100 Percent Allowable . . .

for next month." -Spring 1971

The Texas Railroad Commission, many years earlier, had been assigned the task of matching oil production to demand. In essence, it was a government-sanctioned cartel. Texas oil production so dominated the industry that regulating each Texas oil well to a percentage of its capacity was enough to maintain oil prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was modeled after the Texas Railroad Commission. Just substitute Saudi Arabia for Texas. The "100 percent allowable" meant that the TRC was authorizing all well operators in Texas to open their valves to full production. This, however, was no longer enough to allow the United States to hold stable the price of oil.

So, is OPEC cutting production, or is production cutting OPEC?