OPEC to Keep Production Steady
“OPEC is facing its toughest environment since oil prices collapsed in the late 1990s. Oil demand is falling in both industrialized nations, like the United States, and developing countries like China, which had been the main engine of growth for the past decade.
As a result, oil prices have dropped nearly 70 percent since their summer peak.
Since September, OPEC has agreed to trim its output by a total of 4.2 million barrels a day. According to outside estimates, the cartel has achieved about 80 percent of these reductions, a remarkably high outcome at a time of crisis.
So far, these cuts have been successful in stemming the drop in prices and stabilizing the market. After peaking at $147 a barrel in July, oil now trades at $47 a barrel.
Producers are torn by contradictory forces. On one hand, the sharp drop in oil demand during the global financial crisis suggests the need for members of the cartel to keep slashing their output to prevent a price collapse.
Algeria, as well as Venezuela, favors more cuts, but the most powerful member, Saudi Arabia, is wary of putting more strains on customers whose economies are deep in recession.”
March 23, 2009, 10:21pm
