FuelClub Discount

OPEC chief Abdala El-Badri on Thursday said members were unhappy with surging prices he blamed on speculators and a weak US dollar.

“We are not very happy with this increase in oil prices,” said El-Badri during a visit to Ecuador.

“Volatility has nothing to do with the fundamentals. It has nothing to do with world demand,” he said, stressing that a dropping dollar was driving prices higher.

“The price was at 130 dollars and today is at 135, so it’s really a crazy market,” he said.
(more…)

Washington overcame a significant obstacle yesterday in its attempt to sue Opec for behaving as an oil cartel and keeping the price of fuel artificially high.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation to bring a lawsuit against Opec members because they have collectively set the price of oil and limited oil supplies.

The price of oil is at an all-time high of about $129 a barrel and has been in part responsible for surging inflation in the United States, Britain and across Europe.
(more…)

As President George W. Bush arrives in Saudi Arabia today, his second to the Kingdom within the year, to formally commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the deep rooted, multifaceted Saudi-US relations, oil is reported to be very much up on his radar. Indeed with oil prices hovering around historic heights and talks of economic recession and stagflation in virtually every one’s dictionary, it would be naive to expect that when the leader of world’s largest oil consumer and the leader of the world’s largest exporter sit down for a face to face meeting, the issue would not be on agenda.

And the White House admits so. Spokeswoman Dana Perino told the press before the president embarked on his regional tour that President Bush will raise the issue of high oil prices and their negative economic impact when he visits Saudi Arabia today. Reports emanating from Washington very much emphasize that when the leaders of both the countries meet; George W. Bush would rake up the issue of boosting crude production further with his hosts.

It is understandable, the US leader, a former oil company executive, is especially eager to avoid spiraling oil prices in the months leading up to the November presidential election, which could scuttle presumptive Republican candidate John McCain’s hopes to succeed Bush in the White House.
(more…)

While polemics were going on on its plan to increase domestic fuel oil prices prompted by world crude price hikes, the Indonesian government came up this week with an idea to quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The idea is plausible. Indonesia is no longer a net oil exporting country. The volume of its imports has exceeded its exports. Thus, Indonesia is no longer an exporting country, which is a plausible reason to quit the OPEC.

The government`s intention to say a goodbye to the oil cartel was hailed by the House of Representatives (DPR), yet a number of analysts still saw some benefits if Indonesia maintained its membership in the organization.
(more…)

There is nothing OPEC can do to reduce record oil prices, so there is no need for the organisation to hold an emergency meeting before September, Qatar’s oil minister said on Sunday.

“We don’t need to meet before September because we have nothing to do before September,” Abdullah al-Attiyah told Reuters by telephone. “The oil price is out of our control.”

Attiyah said oil supplies were sufficient and there was no demand from refiners for more supplies.
An OPEC source said on Friday that the producer group might consult on whether it needs to boost oil output before a scheduled meeting in September should crude oil prices keep rising.
(more…)

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia said Tuesday that his country was considering quitting OPEC because it was no longer a net oil exporter.

“Our wells are drying,” he said in a nationally televised speech, adding that the country needed to concentrate on increasing domestic production, which has dropped to less than a million barrels a day even as consumption rises.

The government opened talks Monday on whether it should continue to stay with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries or withdraw “until we reach a point where we deserve to rejoin that organization,” Yudhoyono said.
(more…)