Word: oil
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...could be working on the assumption that the Saudis and other allies could quietly increase production unilaterally, and relieve pressure on prices. After all, OPEC output quotas are hardly effectively policed. But analysts believe that assumption may be false. Priddy believes Americans might be unfairly pinning the blame on oil-rich countries. "They want to find someone to blame and Gulf countries aren't popular to begin with," he says. But producers are contending with rising production costs, while extracting oil has become more difficult as land-based wells with plentiful reserves have been depleted in many places, leaving expensive...
...President Bush last week urged Saudi Arabia - the world's leading oil producer - to help ease the crisis by pumping more oil onto the world market. He made a similar appeal in person when he visited King Abdullah in January. And now comes a new attempt by Cheney, as part of his 10-day trip to the region to discuss a number of crises. But oil analysts believe Cheney is unlikely to be any more successful than Bush has been...
...Washington argues that a deep economic downturn in the United States - which consumes a quarter of the world's energy - could drive down global demand for oil, and wind up hurting oil-rich countries. But OPEC's 13 oil ministers - whose countries account for about 40% of the world's oil supply - have heard that argument from U.S. officials before, and have rejected it at three meetings in the past six months, most recently in Vienna on March 5. There, U.S. foes Venezuela and Iran took a lead in arguing against raising oil output...
...Eurasia Group in Washington. "It would be a real loss of face if all of a sudden they would reverse course unilaterally," he says. Cheney's visit to Riyadh might be too late, says Priddy, adding about U.S. officials: "If they were going to ask [for increased oil production] they should have asked a month...
...even larger problem facing Washington, however, is that as pricey as oil is these days, there's no shortage of customers elsewhere in the world. (There are also plenty of investors pouring billions into oil futures as a hedge against the falling dollar - and so driving up oil prices even more.) The major reason for the current high prices is that OPEC's production has been seriously stretched by the huge increase in demands from booming China and India, as well as from oil-rich countries in the Middle East itself, says Lawrence Eagles, chief economist of the Paris-based...