Wednesday, April 6, 2011
OPEC unable to control $120 oil ministers
Then prices reached an all-time high of nearly $150 a barrel in July before collapsing to less than $40 in December as a financial crisis sparked in the U.S. housing market led to recession.
The IEA's Didier Houssin, head of energy markets and security, also said the market was very different from 2008.
In that record rally, OPEC spare capacity had slipped to less than 2 million barrels per day (bpd). Now it has around 4 million bpd, Houssin said in Paris, which could be added if necessary, and inventories were comfortable although stocks were higher in the United States than in other developed consumer countries.
Hamli told reporters he was worried about events in North Africa and the Middle East, where a wave of popular protest has spread across oil-producing nations. "We are worried, yes," he said. "The rise in oil prices is a reflection of that."
OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri had also been expected to attend the Paris conference, but sent a letter of apology saying current events had detained him at the OPEC secretariat in Vienna. "Ongoing events in the Middle East and North Africa are such that I judge it inappropriate for me to absent myself from the organization's headquarters in Vienna at this time," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/businesspro-us-opec-idUSLDE7351IF20110406?pageNumber=2
The IEA's Didier Houssin, head of energy markets and security, also said the market was very different from 2008.
In that record rally, OPEC spare capacity had slipped to less than 2 million barrels per day (bpd). Now it has around 4 million bpd, Houssin said in Paris, which could be added if necessary, and inventories were comfortable although stocks were higher in the United States than in other developed consumer countries.
Hamli told reporters he was worried about events in North Africa and the Middle East, where a wave of popular protest has spread across oil-producing nations. "We are worried, yes," he said. "The rise in oil prices is a reflection of that."
OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri had also been expected to attend the Paris conference, but sent a letter of apology saying current events had detained him at the OPEC secretariat in Vienna. "Ongoing events in the Middle East and North Africa are such that I judge it inappropriate for me to absent myself from the organization's headquarters in Vienna at this time," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/businesspro-us-opec-idUSLDE7351IF20110406?pageNumber=2
