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THOSE WHO BELIEVE the OPEC cartel pulls the strings on global oil prices are wrong – they should apparently be looking to a higher power to make sense of the cost fluctuations.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, whose country is one of the world’s three biggest producers, today told CNBC that the price of oil couldn’t be controlled and was “up to Allah” when he was asked about where the volatile market was headed.
It comes as major oil producers continue to face pressure to push up their prices and make their operations more profitable in the face of lower global demand and a boom in production.
So far the OPEC consortium has kept up its output as it goes head-to-head with US oil producers riding the wave of the fracking boom. There is also the prospect of Iranian oil being added to the global glut if sanctions are lifted under a nuclear deal.
Al-Naimi said worldwide supply and demand was the only thing that would set oil prices in the long term.
I am not worried about Iranian crude, nor will I try to predict what the price is – if I were to predict, I would be somewhere else, gambling,” he said.
Up and down
Saudi Arabia is the biggest and most powerful oil exporter among the OPEC consortium, but its finances have been bleeding into the red with falling prices.
Oil rents – the difference between the value of Saudi oil production on world markets and the cost of production - have in recent years made up about half of the country’s total economy.
Meanwhile, the price of oil hit six-year lows earlier this year, but the price of Brent crude has since bounced back above $67 per barrel after sitting at close to $50 per barrel in January and February.
The rebound has been driven by a recent fall in supply, with US oil rigs being taken offline because of the low prices and political instability in producers like Libya putting the brakes on output.
Irish fuel suppliers have been quick to respond to the changes in price, hiking the average cost of unleaded to €1.39 per litre in April – up from a low of €1.28 in February – according to figures from the AA.
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Seems like Allah doesn’t like Ireland already with current prices
Price at pump always slow to fall but quick to rise.
Michael Noonan makes the most from Oil in the country – Fact !
Number of yrs ago price of a barrel was toward 200$. It now is a quarter/third of that and the cost of litre at the pump is non relative to any of that.
Econometrics – probably decided in Germany by actuaries …
When it was favourable for large mortgages to be written petrol and diesel were below a Euro in Ireland – once the vast majority were netted the oil was free to rise again – the cost per barrel has nothing to do with it …
There’s a bloke i knew once that was like that too !
What in Christ had that got to do with econometrics?
Sky high up towards the 72 promised virgins then?
And yet the price of petrol is still rising in Ireland. Sick of being ripped off at every opportunity buy the government, banks and petrol companies.
I was talking to the fairies at the end of the Garden and they told me that the price will Drop to $60 before the end of the month.
It’s official Allah rules the world !
I’m joining those guys – backing a winner so I am !
Now which crowd do I join …
Isis,
Jordan,
Palestine (Jesus was from there )
Israel (Moses wasn’t from there – he was from Egypt )
America (most aggressive power broker in the area )
Saudis (like the horses )
Or the African ones …
Decisions, decisions – it’s like picking a Christian Church when you think about it !
You have two choices.
Sunni or Shite.
I bet Jesus knows too.
Allah up!!!!
Oiled be dammed
Peaks and Troughs. They’ll be back up again in another year or two.
They really believe this hocus pocus allah stuff.
I live in the GCC region and confronted a chap who was driving with kids bouncing around the back seats and front seats. He just simply said if they die in a car crash because they’re not strapped in by seat belts then it’s just god’s will… I asked what will would it be if one of them was flung out of the car, smashed through another bystander and killed them…oh thats god’s will too. Amazing stuff.
I remembered when reading this (http://jrnl.ie/2085238) , comments from Colin Campbell oh about 20 years ago. I went searching on wikipedia a terrible place I know but one which every now and again manages to hold on to pieces of information.
It states that “In 1989 Campbell claimed that there would be a shortage towards the late 1990s. In 1990 he claimed that 1998 would represent a “depletion midpoint.”[6] These early assessments were, however, according to Campbell himself, “based on public domain data, before the degree of misreporting by industry and governments was appreciated.”
As peaking is approached, liquid fuel prices and price volatility will increase dramatically, and, without timely mitigation, the economic, social, and political costs will be unprecedented.
This movement in oil price should be watched – we have seen such a huge drop off in prices and now they are beginning to rise again , are we entering a phase of oil volatility and if so what does this mean
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