Supplies Drop as Big Oil's Power Shrivels

Cable argues that kingdom can't pump enough crude to control prices

(NEWSER) - The world may be on the verge of an oil crisis, according to WikiLeaks cables released to the Guardian today. According to the cables, Sadad al-Husseini, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil monopoly, warned diplomats that Saudi reserves were overstated by almost 40%, and that the country couldn’t reach the 12.5 million barrel-per-day production capacity needed to keep global oil prices in check. He predicted that the world would hit “peak oil” as early as 2012. More»

Like that no-good BP, which used to employ Todd Palin

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin is fired up about the Gulf Coast oil spill, and she's taking away a powerful lesson: Don't trust foreigners, like those tea-sippers over at British Petroleum. “Gulf: Learn from Alaska's lesson w/foreign oil co's: don't naively trust—VERIFY,” she wrote on Twitter . That sounds great and all, except for a couple little details, writes Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post . More»

Oil ministry plays hardball on prices

(NEWSER) - The Iraqi oil industry has been nationalized since 1972, but today the country is awarding the first contracts in decades to private petroleum companies—live on television. So far a joint bid by British Petroleum and a Chinese firm has won the first contract, for a 17 billion-barrel field in Iraq's southeast. As the Wall Street Journal reports, oil companies were taken aback by the government's tough pricing: the BP consortium won by halving the fee it wanted to assess the oil ministry. More»

(NEWSER) - Oil approached $41 a barrel today after OPEC said it would cut its output if necessary to stabilize prices, Reuters reports. “I think we still need more action,” OPEC’s secretary-general said, promising the cuts would be more thorough than many expected, with 80% compliance among the 12-member group. More»

Behemoth stood still when oil hit record highs, now has $40B for buying spree

(NEWSER) - Flush with cash after resisting costly acquisitions while oil prices hit record highs, Exxon Mobil could be ready for a shopping spree that could alter the face of the world’s energy supply, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company has nearly $37 billion in reserves and could target another oil company, like Shell, and “change the industry structure forever,” say analysts. More»