OPEC determined to cut oil output

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailbusiness.asp?fileid=20040309.M01&irec=0

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not change its plan of cutting crude oil output on April 1, despite the rising price of oil.

"We will stick to our February decision (to slash the output). But we are reviewing how long the price has been above US$28 (per barrel)," OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, said on Monday.

Purnomo said the current high price for oil was not caused by "fundamental" factors, such as the imbalance of supply and demand, but non-fundamental ones, such as speculation by traders and concerns over unrest in Venezuela.

"We are a little perplexed by the idea of a cut on April 1 as it really won't take effect in the market until some time in May or June, and we are going into the driving season when refineries are running flat out to meet gasoline demand," said William Ramsay, IEA deputy executive director.

also..
BHP sees growing Australian oil shortfall
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2838160a6026,00.html

SYDNEY: Australia faces a hefty shortfall in oil production by the end of the decade as old fields dry up, mining and petroleum group BHP Billiton warned yesterday.

By 2010, Australia's production would fall short by 150 million barrels of oil equivalent a year due to maturing of the once-rich reserves of the Bass Strait, the country's main source of oil for more than 30 years, said Malcom Garratt, a vice-president at BHP Billiton's petroleum division.

holding production steady at a time of high/rising gasoline prices in the early days of the Bush Administration, GWB said something to the effect that he felt their pain. Anyone got a link?

That's all that needs to be said.

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net