The Guardian reports the totally predictable news that:
"Opec deaf to chancellor's pleas for cartel to pump more oil· We're not to blame for crude crisis, say producers
· Prices surge again as Tropical Storm Rita loomsLarry Elliott, economics editor
Tuesday September 20, 2005
The GuardianThe oil producers' cartel Opec was last night poised to deliver a snub to Gordon Brown by postponing an increase in output demanded by the chancellor to cut the economically damaging surge in energy costs in the west.
On the first day of a two-day meeting in Vienna, the 11-nation group rejected the chancellor's argument that it was to blame for spiralling energy prices and was holding back from boosting output by an additional 500,000 barrels per day."
"Several ministers said they were opposed to higher output quotas when global refining capacity was at full stretch and unable to process more crude.
"There is no problem with supply. The problem is a shortage of refining capacity," said the Libyan energy minister, Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan. Saudi Arabia has been scouting the market to sell more crude in October, but says it can find no buyers."
Does Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown really have no clue about how the global petroleum market actually works ?
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