Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Ali al-Naimi
At nearly $76 a barrel, the price of petroleum has reached a “perfect” state, according to Saudi Arabia’s top oil official. “Inventories are coming down, the price is perfect and investors, consumers, producers are all very happy,” Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, told the media on Saturday. “There is nothing to worry about.”
Some oil experts in the U.S. took exception to al-Naimi’s attitude that things couldn’t be better. Author Raymond Learsy, who has been critical of America’s dependence on foreign oil, argued that the price of oil has been “manipulated” 258% since last year through cuts in production by oil-producing states. “OPEC, in conspiring to hold back over 4 million barrels of oil a day from the market, is thereby clearly colluding to impact oil’s price,” wrote Learsy on Huffington Post. “It is a willful policy seemingly tolerated by governments as they are not willing to confront this egregious exercise in market manipulation.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Oil Rebounds From Seven-Week Low, ‘Price Is Perfect’ for OPEC (by Yee Kai Pin, Bloomberg News)
When Saudi Oil Minister Calls Oil Prices 'Perfect,' Ladies Better Secure Their Handbags (by Raymond Learsy, Huffington Post)
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