IMF urges Opec to raise output capacity (Fin. Times)

[cthrumatrix]

IMF urges Opec to raise output capacity

By Javier Blas in London
Published: March 9 2005 20:22 | Last updated: March 9 2005 20:22

The International Monetary Fund has recommended that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries needs to more than double its spare capacity to cushion the market against shocks, warning that it considers the current level of about 1.5m barrels a day insufficient.


In a chapter of the Fund's World Economic Outlook report, to be published next month, the IMF says Opec's production cushion needs to rise to about 3m to 5m b/d, equivalent to between 3.5 and 5.5 per cent of global daily demand, to provide “much better protection”.

Opec, which produces 40 per cent of the world's oil, meets next Wednesday in Isfahan, Iran, to discuss its production policy for the second quarter amid concern about high oil prices. US oil has risen this week above $55 and European benchmark Brent hit an all-time high of $53.30.

snip
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/68ec345a-90d8-11d9-9980-00000e2511c8.html

Memo to IMF....peak oil is here...and US Policy is "conquest"...ask them about that.

[Inland]

1. It's only a question of the maximum squeeze OPEC can put on us.

The IMF is saying that too low production will put the world in recession and lower demand. The only question is the exact right amount to keep us all working our asses off to pay for oil and not put us out of business.

Thanks, Bush. Thanks for making us all work for our OPEC friends.

[xray s]

2. The Middle East is desending into an area wide civil war

Oil is going to get a lot more expensive.

[cthrumatrix]

3. totally agree.... have a feeling Saudi reserves are not what they say

[phantom power]

4. It's sweet, how everybody is still pretending like OPEC can make

this problem go away, just by opening the spigot one more notch. They can't keep up anymore. Nobody can. I wonder what will happen when everybody gets over the denial.

[Trillo]

5. Well, there is the possibility

from the as yet untapped Mexican deep off-shore discovery.

Personally, I'd like to see the oil-energy cartel reduced in economic importance through the transference to a hydrogen energy economy. As oil rises in price, these options will increasingly be explored.

[cthrumatrix]

6. hydrogen (from what I read) takes to much energy ...and the

nuclear certainly takes time to ramp up...we certainly would need many alterntive renewable ideas cooking to TRY to make up for the oil shortfall.

[Trillo]

8. You must have missed the recent Australian discovery.

http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/adv/media/2004/aug/Solar_hydrogen.html
This looks promising, it's without nuclear energy for heat like some of the links below.

More similar advancements:
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article4869.html
http://scienceblog.com/community/article3800.html


I'm sure there are probably newer developments, but I'm certain that anything that might grant average people 'energy independence' will be fought tooth and nail by the corporatist oil cartel. The novelist Robert Heinlein dealt with this issue, I think he coined the term 'bridgestone', but I can't remember the title or titles right now.

[Barrett808]

7. OPEC is pumping at capacity already -- none to spare

The nasty, open secret of Peak Oil: OPEC can't influence prices downward anymore. But they can push prices upward easily enough...

[Blue to the bone]

9. I think you're on the mark Barrett! To me, OPEC now has little control...

....over oil prices...at least from the perspective of forcing them lower through higher production. From what I've read, the Saudi fields are rapidly aging and peak production may have already been hit.

If OPEC can no longer 'flood' the market with extra production, then they've lost control. And with economies like China and India growing rapidly, current prices are probably here to stay.

[Barrett808]

10. Check out ASPO

http://www.peakoil.net/

Be afraid.