Reuters:
Saudi oil minister says mkt oversupplied, cuts output
By Amena Bakr and Reem Shamseddine
KUWAIT | Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:03pm IST
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday the world oil market was oversupplied and that the kingdom had reduced production in March due to weak crude demand.
Oil consumers have urged OPEC to quickly add supply to the market to quell the rally in crude prices that has taken oil to its highest level in two and a half years amid unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
Other OPEC ministers have insisted the market is well supplied and there is nothing the group can do to stop prices from going higher while there is not unmet demand for crude.
"The market is overbalanced... Our production in February was 9.125 million barrels per day (bpd), in March it was 8.292 million bpd. In April we don't know yet, probably a little higher than March. The reason I gave you these numbers is to show you that the market is oversupplied," Naimi told reporters.
OPEC will meet to discuss production policy in June.
Naimi declined to comment on the current price of crude but said Saudi production "may be higher" in April than in March.
A Reuters survey estimated Saudi Arabia produced 9 million bpd in March, up from 8.65 million bpd in February.
Two Saudi-based industry sources told Reuters last week the kingdom had cut production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in response to weak demand.
Oil prices slipped early last week after Goldman Sachs analysts warned high oil prices may be eroding demand but rebounded on signs of renewed health in the U.S. economy on Friday.
Saudi Arabia and some other OPEC members unilaterally boosted oil production after the uprising in Libya shut down the bulk of the North African OPEC member's oil industry.
Naimi confirmed Saudi Arabia had sold 2 million barrels of its so-called special blend that state oil company Saudi Aramco produced as a substitute for Libyan crude oil that was lost to the market due to the Libyan unrest but market sources say demand for the blend has been muted.
10 comments:
Hi Midnight exactly what i expected last year when i said lets talk again when Iran is Chairman of the Opec,last week Iran said that the price was high due to speculation not due to shortages.This is the result.
At this point I can't even stand to discuss anything related to oil prices, supply, production, or whatever that doesn't address the 800 pound gorilla flinging shit around the room first.
The failure of the US gobnint to form a sane energy policy for over forty years (since 1973) now is far more detrimental to our economy and security than anything else in the nations history either foreign or domestic.
We have engaged in probably the greatest transfer of wealth in human history by any standard of measurement; and to sworn cultural/existential enemies no less!
Anytime you bring up domestic petroleum production, one is faced with the canard that we don't have enough for self sufficiency. That's a bunch of bullshit, listen to those in the oil industry who actually know and they will pretty much unanimously agree that we can be surely self sufficient if allowed to by a relaxation of bullshit gobnint restrictions.
Why is gas $2.80 in Mexico and over $4.00 here in the U.S.?
We buy more oil so we ought to be able to negotiate better prices.
Something is fishy.
I would not be surprised if the Saudi minister if absolutely right.
If the US gobnint today announced a realistic energy policy (no solar, wind, ethanol, or electric car horseshit) that centered on exploitation of domestic production in the entire nation and coasts, the price of oil would probably drop to 50 bucks a barrel within a month if not lower and sooner.
The suicidal, chaotic, policy of our energy supplies is just another manifestation of liberal, leftist, idiocy that has also given us Detroit, PC speech, the TSA, 60% black abortion rates, and the labeling of Devil worship as the 'religion of peace'.
CJK,
WE HAVE SO MUCH OIL IN OUR COUNTRY WE COULD BE THE LEADING EXPORTER IN THE WORLD, RATHER THAN THE LEADING IMPORTER.
Pemex is a state controlled oil monopoly with set rates that take into account a relatively poorer population. You can bet that any petroleum that Mexico is selling overseas is fetching the going rate of over 100 dollars a barrel.
I personally believe it is impossible to peacefully manipulate the largest and greatest market of anything ever in all of human history that penetrates and fills every nook and cranny in the world.
This is exactly what it looks like; speculation brought on by the obvious instability of the important Mohammedan dominated sources and the slow, steady, dissolution of the Dollar.
Pastorius, If we could just be self sufficient it would wipe out our foreign debt. Any exports on top of that would be pure profit.
The current state of affairs is more lefty Twilight Zone forced denial of reality leading to our eventual enslavement and or destruction.
After all, who the fuck cares about our freedom when the lives of caribou and toads are at stake?
This will get worse before it gets better. They have the oil and they are going to remind us of it. They want our continued protection of their rotten regimes.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to be oversupplied AND overpriced.
We are being PISSED on.
And it ain't rain.
SF is right.
This is going to get way worse.
At WHAT PRICE will there be people in the street? At what price will the teamsters STOP driving because they get poorer by the mile?
At what price will union members find cause with non union workers and professionals with blue collar?
When green peppers are $4 a pound? When fresh fruit and vegetables start disappearing because it costs too much to truck them in, and too much to afford?
When we have to cut back to Ocsar Mayer Bologna and canned peas on white bread 3 x a week and mac and cheese 4 x to keep gas in the tank?
When we have to tell our kids they can't have as much as they want to eat?
Will it take until then for Americans to understand?
We need oil and natural gas.
We will need it for the FORESEEABLE future. No boutique 'green' answer can work on an industrial scale to supply this nation's needs.
FUSION MIGHT, ...some day. But if we want to have a nation, scratch that a CHANCE at a nation where our kids lives will be better than ours, the first and prime requirement is energy of our own which is PLENTIFUL and therefore affordable.
DRILL. DRILL NOW
DRILL TMW
DRILL NEXT WEEK
DRILL UNTIL ....
DON'T STOP UNTIL THAT ALTERNATE ENERGY SOURCE COSTS LESS YOU FOOLS.
The run-up in oil prices is due to the Fed Reserve pumping money into the market. That excess $$ has to go somewhere. It went to oil (and other commodities - food stuffs, gold, silver) and with way too many $$ chasing barrels, the price went up aka inflation(currently at ~10% and climbing).
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