OPEC Cuts Oil Production

Investors had been expecting a rise

(NEWSER) - Crude prices are headed north this morning, after OPEC surprised the market by keeping production flat instead of ramping it up, the Wall Street Journal reports. Nymex crude is currently up almost 2%, above $100 a barrel, after being down ahead of the announcement. OPEC's secretary-general told reporters that the countries were "unable to reach consensus to raise production," according to the AP . More»

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»

(NEWSER) - OPEC today decided to take 1.5 million barrels of oil per day off the markets to boost prices flirting with 16-month lows, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deep cut will take effect next month. “This slowdown in oil demand is serving to exacerbate the situation in a market which has been oversupplied for some time,” OPEC said in a statement. More»

(AP) - Oil prices plummeted to a one-year low below $83 a barrel today in European trading as investor fears of a severe global economic downturn sparked a panicked sell-off. "The whole market has lost confidence in everything," said one commodities strategist. "Everyone is worried about global growth, and oil is the front line commodity for that. There's just a lot of panic and fear." More»

Oil cartel doubles its income on soaring prices, production

(NEWSER) - OPEC nations have shattered records for income this year, earning as much money in the first 6 months of 2008 as they did in all of 2007, the Financial Times reports. The Saudi-led cartel of oil-exporting nations took home $645 billion in the first two quarters and is on course to pull in more than a trillion dollars by year's end. More»