Word: bbl
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...OPEC ministers had once again jacked up the world price of oil, and the bite was fully as bad as gloomy prophets had predicted?and perhaps worse. The cartel's complex system of base quotes and surcharges works out to an average price of between $20 and $21 per bbl.?up 15% just from last week, 50% since Jan. 1, and 1,000% from the $1.80 price at the start...
...basic situation: the cartel's 13 member nations are now pumping roughly 31 million bbl. of crude out of the ground each day, 2 million bbl. more than last year, but still 2 million bbl. less than nations want to buy in order to keep their factories humming. The shortage has set off a scramble that permits OPEC to charge almost any price its members wish; some U.S. officials fear that the cartel will ram through yet another 15% increase by year's end. The only way to head it off, say government leaders around the world (including OPEC leaders...
...aides. By drawing on increasing output from North Sea wells (expected to nearly double from last year to 1985), the Europeans could freeze imports from outside the Community and still burn more petroleum than ever. In the U.S., where domestic oil output has been declining (down about 700,000 bbl. a day since 1972), a freeze on imports would cause more hardship. Japan, which is totally dependent on imported oil, took the same view; Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira reportedly dismissed the European plan as "very clever." Canada, where domestic oil production is also leveling off, joined the U.S. and Japan...
That was what the government chiefs did?sort of. Carter announced a target of holding U.S. imports through 1985 at 8.5 million bbl. a day. That would be slightly more than the nation is importing now and considerably more than it brought in last year, when the start of shipments from Alaska temporarily held down imports. But it would be a low enough ceiling to force curtailment of some cherished petroleum-wasting habits such as lavish outdoor lighting displays, and it might extend or worsen the present prospects of recession. The Europeans accepted the principle of setting country-by-country...
...like Iran and Algeria and so-called moderates like Saudi Arabia and tiny Qatar, the cartel finally settled on its two-tier pricing "compromise." In theory, it would let members' consciences be their guide in deciding just how much money to charge-anywhere from $18 to $23.50 per bbl. In practice, the scheme seems little more than a device for institutionalizing chaos, which in recent weeks has sent the price of oil leaping to as much as two and even three times the officially quoted rate of $14.55 per bbl. After the cartel's communiqué was read...