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Article: High price of oil alarms even OPEC; $70-a-barrel level could cut future demand through recession or conservation.(USA)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- May 10, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Mark Trumbull Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Reasons for today's high oil prices are so numerous that levels above $60 per barrel seem almost inevitable: from rising global demand and new nationalism in Latin America to a tense standoff over Iran's nuclear program.
Those issues are all real enough. But behind them all is a bigger factor, so obvious it almost passes notice: the OPEC cartel. Without the supply constraints imposed over many years by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the price of oil today would be far lower, analysts say.
"We live in a world where there's a functioning cartel in the oil ...