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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (685550)	6/14/2005 9:37:50 AM
From: CYBERKEN	Respond to of 769667

We would ALL like to know why a Social Security welfare queen is so worried about getting his loot that he sells out his COUNTRY with every breath he takes...

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (685550)	6/14/2005 12:13:57 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

OPEC Looking to Ease High Oil Prices By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 11:52 a.m. ET VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- OPEC must work to ease stubbornly high oil prices and get them down to ''more reasonable'' levels, the group's president said Tuesday ahead of a key meeting that will test its clout and credibility. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- beset by prices hovering around $55 a barrel -- is expected to raise its daily output ceiling by 500,000 barrels to an official quota of 28 million barrels per day when it meets Wednesday. Some officials and industry analysts say the move would be purely symbolic, since OPEC -- which churns out 40 percent of the world's crude -- is already pumping a bit more than 28 million barrels a day. Raising the quota to match reality, they contend, would do little to drive down prices that are bedeviling motorists at the gas pumps and putting the brakes on the global economy. ''For the past 1 1/2 years, OPEC has been incapable of pushing prices down,'' said Deborah White, an energy analyst at Paris-based SG Securities. ''In order for them to regain control over oil prices, they need to have clear objectives followed by clear actions,'' she said. OPEC President Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah of Kuwait said Tuesday the group had little choice with prices well above the psychologically important threshold of $50 per barrel. ''Whenever it's over $50, we have to react,'' he said. ''The market is well-supplied, but we have to do everything we can to make more reasonable prices.'' Al Sabah said the main problem was the world's inability to quickly refine lesser-quality oil, which has created a bottleneck in efforts to increase production. ''The main problem now is the refining,'' he said. Al Sabah said the cartel would increase the ceiling by 500,000 barrels per day to show to consumers that it's doing its best to cool prices. He said a second 500,000 barrel-per-day increase was being mulled for later this year, suggesting the cartel may raise its output ceiling even further. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Tuesday he also wants the 11-nation cartel to get prices below $50. ''That is what is reasonable worldwide,'' he said. ''OPEC is doing its share for the market,'' Naimi said. ''The supply is there. Don't panic.'' On Tuesday, light, sweet crude for July fell 41 cents to $55.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On the International Petroleum Exchange, July Brent fell 69 cents to $54.09 a barrel. OPEC contends that it sees the most benefit from prices in the $40 to $50 range. The group has no interest in seeing prices plummet, but also wants to keep buyers from turning to producers outside the cartel. ''If prices go under $40 a barrel, OPEC should cut production by 500,000 barrels'' to compensate, said Libya's energy secretary, Fathi Hamed Ben Shatwan. But he added: ''Practically, we do not have the physical capacity to add to the market ... the market has a psychological, not a physical, problem.'' Mohamed bin Dhaen Al Hamli, the United Arab Emirates' minister of energy, said he would support ''anything'' to ease jitters in the market. OPEC acting Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said Tuesday that the group would leave its forecast for global oil demand this year unchanged, despite revising up growth forecasts from China and the United States in the second half of the year. Nigeria will increase its oil output by 500,000 barrels a day within 18 months, Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria's presidential adviser on petroleum and energy, said Tuesday. Daukoru also stressed the need for action to try to cool high prices. ''I have no doubt we need to do something immediately,'' he said. Raising the output ceiling by 500,000 barrels a day would go ''beyond symbolization,'' he said. But others were wondering whether the group has the pull to bring prices back down. ''No matter what the decision -- half a million (barrels), 1 million or 2 million a day -- it will have no physical impact on OPEC's output level. It will be just playing with numbers,'' Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Monday. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the group known to have the ability to add barrels to daily production. Naimi said recently that even if OPEC raises its production ceiling, it may not make much sense to actually add oil to the market. Oil prices have been rising for 2 1/2 years and have more than doubled since then. ------ Associated Press Writer Edith Balazs contributed to this story. ------ On the Net: OPEC: www.opec.org Copyr