Does Opec Rule The World?
Opec, or to give the organisation its correct title the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, seems to be at the centre of the worlds problems at the moment with members unwilling to increase supplies in order to pull the oil price down to lower levels. While there appeared to be some kind of breakthrough at the recent Saudi Arabian conference on the oil price, these seem to be nothing but hollow words at the moment.
As the price of oil reaches $142 a barrel, with suggestions that it could rise to $170 in the short term, there is real concern that Opec is literally holding the world to ransom. The US authorities have now become more heavily involved and are looking at ways of putting legal pressure on Opec to increase supplies. However, any legal push on Opec may backfire and cause yet more of a run on the black gold.
Those people that are complaining about the power of Opec at the minute are the same groups who were happy to pay around $10 a barrel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, at a time when many oil wells were uneconomical to operate. Now that the situation has turned full circle, Opec members are flexing their muscles and there is not a lot anyone can do about it.
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