Word: petroleum
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...Carter Administration and Congress were putting the final touches to an ambitious $88 billion program for the development of synthetic fuels. Carter's grand design would have produced the equivalent of 2 million bbl. of oil per day, an amount equal to almost 40% of current petroleum imports, from abundant American supplies of shale and coal. But now there are major doubts about the whole future of synthetic fuels. Some Reagan Administration officials argue that private industry does not need Government help to develop new energy sources, and lower oil prices are weakening the incentive to produce the expensive...
Once that prospect was clear, investors sold highflying stocks and weak performers alike. Oil stocks were among the biggest losers. A key reason was the failure two weeks ago of the 13-nation OPEC oil cartel to agree on a uniform price for petroleum exports...
Lower oil prices mean lower profits for oil companies. Many companies own oil reserves in non-OPEC member nations, and thus get less for their petroleum and refined products when cartel prices drop on the world market. As a result, energy stocks themselves dropped. The price of a share of Getty Oil Co. slumped 6.2%, to 68¼ on Monday alone. Shell dropped 4⅜ to an end-of-week low of 41⅛. Phillips Petroleum dropped...
...hawks: Libya, Nigeria and Algeria. These countries have steadfastly forced customers to pay as much as $40 per bbl. Since April, output in Libya has dropped by nearly 60% to 750,000 bbl. daily. The decline has been steep as well in Nigeria and Algeria. Both nations have limited petroleum reserves but large populations and ambitious economic development programs that they hope to pay for with the income from oil exports...
...replace OPEC'S current pricing free-for-all with a system of regular and more moderate price rises. The desert kingdom has adopted this strategy because its own oil interests are very different from those of the price hawks. Saudi Arabia has a small population and almost inexhaustible petroleum reserves. It wants to keep price increases moderate so that the industrialized countries will remain important clients for Saudi oil well into the 21st century and will not rush to adopt significant conservation measures or produce energy substitutes...