Oil at $65 a barrel may sound alarm bells for OPEC

[MNeagle]

(Reuters) - Oil ministers from several OPEC nations played down on Saturday a sharp fall in prices, but Kuwait said another $10 drop may force the group into action.

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U.S. crude oil futures settled at $75.11 a barrel on Friday, posting their largest weekly loss in almost a year and a half, as worries grew that the euro zone's debt crisis might derail the global economic recovery.

Kuwait's oil minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said OPEC was likely to call a meeting if crude prices suffered further sharp losses.

"Sixty-five dollars would ring a bell ... and a meeting," he told reporters before an Arab Energy Conference in Doha.

Crude also hit its lowest level since February 16th on Friday at $74.51, just five days after going over $87 a barrel. But the price is now right in the middle of the $70-$80 range that Saudi Arabia has targeted as fair for both consumers and producers.

OPEC is not scheduled to meet formally until October and has kept oil supply targets steady since late 2008.

Oil prices had undergone a correction in the past week and there was no need for OPEC to meet before October, said United Arab Emirates (UAE) Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli.

"Prices move up and down, it's a natural correction. The price changes are responding to market forces," he told reporters. "We still believe the market is very well supplied."

Algeria's Oil Minister Chakib Khelil likewise said there was no need for OPEC to take any action at the moment as the price slide had nothing to do with fundamentals.

"All this (economic) uncertainty has led to a decline in the oil price ... I don't think (OPEC) needs to step in," he said.

Khelil said he expected oil prices to be around $80-$85 a barrel for the rest of the year.

The Doha conference from Sunday until Wednesday is not an OPEC gathering, but oil ministers will probably hold informal meetings on the sidelines of the event.

Ministers from OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Algeria, Iraq, the UAE and Libya are expected to attend.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi declined to comment on the price fall.

Higher prices have encouraged some members to boost output informally, but core Gulf Arab members Saudi, the UAE and Kuwait have stuck to output restraints.

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EDIT: Changed long link to named link to prevent horizontal scrolling. -Gaillo

[FreeEnergy]

So let's put a nail in the coffin of the scary "bad arabian OPEC". OPEC is nothing more than a cartel of big oil companies, created to manipulate oil prices. Arabs is a cover.



One oil cartel is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, known as OPEC, which is made up of Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The group was created on September 14, 1960, for the purpose of setting oil prices by controlling oil production. They were originally thought to be primarily Arabian, in ownership, however, it is actually an international group, which includes Americans. The cartel was established from an agreement signed on September 17, 1920, by Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo-Iranian, and Standard Oil, for the purpose of fixing oil prices. By 1949, the cartel was made up of Anglo-Iranian, Socony-Vacuum, Royal Dutch Shell, Gulf, Esso, Texaco, and Calso.

Those non-Arabian oil companies are another cartel, which had been informally called "The Seven Sisters", and control what is shipped to the United States, and how much is refined into gas and heating oil. Originally, it was made up of the Rockefeller-controlled Exxon (previously known as Standard Oil of New Jersey, or Esso), Mobil (Standard Oil of New York, which merged with Vacuum Oil), and Chevron (Socal, or Standard Oil of California); the Mellon's Gulf Oil; Shell, Texaco, and British Petroleum (Anglo-Iranian) . They controlled 90% of crude exports to world markets by controlling every important pipeline in the world, such as the 753-mile TransArabian Pipeline, from Qaisuma in Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea, which was owned by Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, and Mobil. Exxon owned the 100-mile Interprovincial Pipeline in Canada, and also the 143-mile pipeline in Venezuela. The 799-mile Alaskan Pipeline was owned by British Petroleum and Exxon. By controlling these, and other vital arteries, they can restrict the flow of oil, limiting supplies to refineries.

You could also see their link, through the joint ownership of the major crude oil production companies:

Abu Dhabi Marine Areas:

British Petroleum 66-2/3%
Compagnie Francaise de Petroles 33-1/3%

Kuwait Oil Co.:

British Petroleum 50%
Gulf 50%

Iran Consortium:

Gulf 7%
Shell 14%
Exxon 7%
Chevron 7%
Compagnie Francaise des Petroles 6%
Texaco 7%
British Petroleum 40%
Mobil 7%
other 5%

Abu Dhabi Petroleum Co.:

Shell 23.75%
Exxon 11.875%
Compagnie Francaise des Petroles 23.75%
British Petroleum 23.75%
Mobil 11.875%
other 5%

Iraq Petroleum:

Compagnie Francaise des Petroles 23.75%
British Petroleum 23.75%
Mobil 11.875%
Shell 23.75%
Exxon 11.875%
other 5%

Aramco(Saudi Arabia):

Exxon 30%
Chevron 30%
Mobil 10%
Texaco 30%

Bahrain Petroleum Co.:

Chevron 50%
Texaco 50%

The Sisters were also interlocked with eight of the largest banks in the country, and with each other, Exxon had ties to Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco; and Mobil had ties to Exxon, Shell, and Texaco. When six of the nation's major commercial banks held their Executive Board meetings, the directors of the top eight oil companies, with the exception of Gulf and Chevron, met with them. When the Bank of America had a Board meeting, the directors of Chevron and Getty Oil met with them. Chevron also had ties with Western Bancorp. Shell and Mobil directors were present at the Board meetings of First National City Bank. Mobil also had ties with Bankers Trust, and Chemical Bank. Exxon was tied in with the Chase Manhattan Bank(a holding company for hundreds of smaller oil companies, including Humble Oil and Creole Petroleum), Morgan Guaranty, and Chemical Bank. Amoco(Standard Oil of Indiana) was tied in with Chase Manhattan, Continental Illinois, and National Bank and Trust.

The Seven Sisters also controlled 70% of the U.S. coal supply, which during World War II, the Germans used to make pollution-free synthetic fuel. Their philosophy is "to mine it now, it's coal; to mine it later, it will be like gold."

Today, the Seven Sisters, have become Five. In 1984, Chevron bought, and merged with Gulf Oil. Also in 1984, Texaco bought Getty Oil, however, because Getty had already agreed in principle to a deal with Pennzoil, Pennzoil turned around and sued Texaco for breach of contract, and won an award of $10.3 billion, which placed Texaco on the precipice of bankruptcy. In 1987, Pennzoil agreed to a payment of $3 billion to settle the matter, which forced Texaco to sell off many important assets, such refineries which were sold to the Saudis. Texaco was no longer a viable member of the cartel. While the power of Texaco diminished, British Petroleum's increased in 1987, with the purchase of the remaining 45% of Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio), that they didn't already own.

According to 1993 sales figures, this is how the Sisters stacked up, compared to other American industries:

3) Exxon ($ 97,825,000,000)

6) Mobil ($ 56,576,000,000)

9) Texaco ($ 34,359,000,000)

11) Chevron ($ 32,123,000,000)

17) Shell ($ 20,853,000,000)


This is quoted from the article "The Seven Sisters, Club Of Rome, and Aids" by David Allen Rivera
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How do The Seven Sisters look in 2010? The numbers are Market capitalization in US dollars, from Yahoo! Finance:

1. Exxon-Mobile - $299 Billion
2. Chevron, own exclusive rights to Texaco in US - $154 Billion
3. Conoco-Phillips - $81 Billion

4 foreign companies are also on the list:
1. PetroChina (China) - $196 Billion
2. Royal Dutch Shell - $166 Billion
3. British Petroleum ( BP Amoco ) - $153 Billion
4. Total S.A. (France) - $106 Bln

Here's OPEC headquarters in VIENNA, AUSTRIA (picture below):