OPEC is a joke.

Wagner · #1 09-10-2008, 06:46 AM

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/10/news...ion=2008091006

Now they claim they need to reduce because of over-production. Remember back to when SA was the only member of OPEC that eventually agreed to raise anything in response to cost and OPEC as a whole said production had nothing to do with cost.....

At least Exxon hasn't done that two-step..yet.

Comments from a June article:

Quote:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/19/news..._oil/index.htm

As a group, OPEC has been reluctant to raise production. Several states, enjoying the record prices, maintain there is no shortage of crude. It's a line the Saudis also touted - until recently.

Saudi Arabia now says it will pump more. The Kingdom, during a recent visit by President Bush, pledged to increase production by 300,000. Last week, they said they would boost it by another 200,000 barrels.

Those numbers are not set in stone, and Sunday's meeting may produce more details on the planned increases.

The Saudis will also seek to convince refineries and others to keep buying.

Recently, refiners worldwide have cut back in light of record prices. But that has only led to a drop in crude inventories - further pushing up the price of oil.

To inject more oil into the market, Halff said the Saudis may use the meeting to arrange for special deals with refiners and others that could bring crude to market at below-market prices. The exact nature of the deals, he noted, will probably never be disclosed.

At the very least, traders will be watching the Sunday meeting to see if those announced production increases fall closer to the 500,000 or 800,000 barrel a day mark.

And another..

Quote:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/05/news...opec/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite OPEC's rather surprise decision Wednesday to not raise production in the face of $100 oil, experts say one big oil heavyweight will likely slip more crude to an energy-thirsty world.

"The Saudis have made it perfectly clear they are going to seep more oil to the market," said Edward Morse, chief energy economist at Lehman Brothers. "The only question is by how much."

Other analysts agreed with Morse.

"You've got to draw a distinction between what the Saudis do at meetings and what they do behind closed doors," said Leo Drollas, chief economist at the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies.

In fact, the Saudis have already been feeding the market more oil on the sly. After producing 8.6 million barrels a day for most of 2006, the Saudis pumped 8.7 million barrels a day in September and 8.8 million in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. OPEC's last official production increase wasn't slated to take effect until November.