Posted on 11/17/2007 8:07:38 PM PST by NormsRevenge
RIYADH (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened an OPEC summit on Saturday with a chilling warning about 200-dollar oil if the United States attacks Iran in a speech that also urged the cartel to be more political.
But internal divisions about the role of the oil exporters' group were highlighted when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, OPEC kingpin and key US regional ally, sounded a moderate note, saying oil "must not become an instrument for conflict."
Chavez, a fiery leftist and fiercely anti-US leader, warned that crude prices could double from their current already-record level of near 100 dollars a barrel if Washington attacked Iran or aggressed Venezuela.
"If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil won't just reach 100 dollars, but even 200 dollars," he said.
He also urged assembled leaders from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, meeting for only the third time in the cartel's 47-year history, to club together for geopolitical reasons.
"Today OPEC stands strong. It is stronger than it has ever been in the past," he said. "OPEC should set itself up as an active geopolitical agent."
King Abdullah defended the aims of the cartel, which controls the output of its 12 members to influence world crude prices, in a speech that was in stark contrast in content and style to the Venezuelan's.
"Those who say that OPEC is a monopolistic organisation are ignoring the fact that OPEC always behaves in a moderate and wise manner," he added.
OPEC's 12-strong membership is dominated by pro-Western Gulf states but includes an anti-US bloc of Iran and Venezuela.
The group has a history of using its oil exports as a political weapon -- members ceased exports in 1973 in protest at Israel's invasion of Syria -- but nowadays Saudi Arabia likes to stress the purely economic and technical agenda of the group.
The summit here is intended to map out the strategic direction of the OPEC, which produces about 40 percent of world oil, but the group is divided on a number of issues.
Chavez -- who opened the summit because he hosted the last OPEC gathering in Caracas in 2000 -- made a series of blistering attacks on the United States and also posited that oil was the source of all conflict.
"The basis of all aggression is oil. It is the underlying reason," Chavez said, pointing to the war in Iraq and US threats against Iran because of the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme.
OPEC's 12-strong membership is dominated by pro-Western Gulf states but includes an anti-US bloc of Iran and Venezuela.
The event comes at a time of tension on world oil markets, with the cartel under pressure to increase its output to help calm record crude prices that had threatened to breach 100 dollars a barrel 10 days ago.
"Managing OPEC politics growing forward is going to be increasingly difficult so long as antagonism between Iran and Venezuela and the US continues," said an analyst from US-based oil brokerage SIG, Yasser Elguindi, before Chavez's speech.
"You have the anti-US crowd and the neutral crowd."
Another leftist South American country, Ecuador, is set to seal its return to OPEC at the summit after leaving the cartel in 1992.
King Abdullah also announced that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, was to invest 300 million dollars (200 million euros) to develop technology to tackle climate change.
In a gaffe late on Friday, a private meeting of OPEC oil, foreign and finance ministers was mistakenly broadcast to journalists, which revealed other differences at the heart of the organisation.
The footage showed Iran pushing for a reference to the falling dollar in a final communique to be issued by leaders at the end of the summit, providing a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the organisation.
Journalists witnessed Saudi Arabia reject the idea courtesy of a television in the media room that mistakenly had a live feed of the meeting.
The eavesdropping ended when a furious official emerged to switch off the broadcast.
The fall of the dollar, which has declined by about 15 percent in 12 months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the US currency.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez(L) and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attend the opening session of the OPEC summit in Riyadh. OPEC leaders began a summit on Saturday with Chavez issuing a chilling warning about oil prices in a speech that also urged the group to be actively involved in foreign policy.(AFP/Hassan Ammar)
Talk about a target rich environment..
Hey Hugo,
SHUT UP!
I snagged this story from another forum.....too funny or ironic to pass up.........I think the “mistake” might well be intentional, at least as likely as inadvertent, anyway.
Oil leaders’ private debate televised by mistake
Tim Webb in Riyadh
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer
‘Kill the cable, kill the cable,’ shouted the security guard as he burst through the double doors into the media room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, followed by Saudi police. It was too late.
A private meeting of Opec leaders, gathered this weekend in Riyadh for the cartel’s third meeting in its 47-year history, had just been broadcast to the world’s media for more than half an hour after a technician had mistakenly plugged the TV feed into the wrong socket. The facade of unity that the cartel so carefully cultivates to a world spooked by soaring oil prices was shattered.
Sometimes, such innocent mistakes can have far-reaching economic and political consequences. Commodity and currency traders said this weekend that oil prices would surge again tomorrow - possibly breaking the $101 per barrel record set in the late 1970s - while the already battered dollar would fall further on the back of the unintentional broadcast.
On Friday night, during what the participants thought were private talks, Venezuela’s oil minister Venezuela Rafael Ramirez and his Iranian counterpart Gholamhossein Nozari, argued that pricing - and selling - oil using the crippled dollar was damaging the cartel.
They said Opec should formally express its concern about the weakness of the dollar when the cartel makes its official declaration at the close of the summit today. But the Saudis, the world’s largest oil producers and de facto head of Opec, vetoed the proposal. Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, warned that even the mere mention to journalists of the fact that leaders were discussing the weak dollar would cause the US currency to plummet.
Unfortunately his words and those of everyone at the meeting were being broadcast via a live television feed to a group of astonished reporters. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ said one who was there. ‘When I realised they didn’t know they were being broadcast live, I frantically started taking notes.’
Opec only realised that the leaders’ row was being broadcast to the world when the Reuters news agency put out a report of the argument.
The weakness of the dollar is one reason why oil prices are so high, as cartel members seek to compensate for their lower earnings. This means a further drop in the dollar is likely to be accompanied by a rise in oil prices.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2212899,00.html
Take a long walk off a short pier, Chavez.
Dam.
well, that is certainly a cheeeery little item, Thanks!
Those are two scumsuckers who need to be waterboarded and then given the Noriega treatment.
The would guess the U.S. can strike the Iranian government, military, and nuclear program while avoiding oil production and terminals.
Hugo, if *something* happens to your tankers, how do you get paid? Accidents happen. Ship’s engines can fail. Rudders can become detached...mysteriously.
The problem Chavez has is his oil is dark (high in sulfur..etc) and the US is the major buyer that is able to refine it.
All we need to do is drill offshore and put that bastard out of business.
We could if lawmakers didn’t soil themselves at the sight of enviros...and take cash from OPEC lobbyists.
Hmmm...I didn't know that.But it occurs to me that he could also sell it to China because they,unlike the Europeans and others,don't give a rat's hindquarters how dirty their air is.
When Americans are damn tired of paying $5 a gallon for gas things will change.
From your lips to G-d’s ears.
Transportation costs make that unlikely, unless that is the only buyer.
“If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran
.
“If”, Chavez, bring on the $200 barrels, because we are irate about Iran attacking our Troops in Iraq. Idle threat days of Bill Clinton are over, get a clue.
So, when do we start? Though if we take them over this time, I say we just keep them.
Iran or no Iran, the price of oil is going to top $200/barrel sooner rather than later. The Saudi’s have over-produced to the point they’ll never be able to deliver anywhere close to their estimated reserves.
I could give you great investment advice on how to best to position yourself to profit from the depletion of the Ghawar field, but I won’t because I’m greedy :P
Three words
Alberta Oil Sands
Nonsense, Crude has gone up MORE than 15% in that time frame. Also, the dollar has only dropped around 11%, not 15%, in the last 12 months. At least the USD index that is.
With idiots like these, the idiots in this country will not drill in the Gulf and Alaska. No wonder this country in going down the tubes. These jerks in congress should be locked in a room and made to listen to rap music 24/7. It may reverse their stupidity
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