Cartel Broken? OPEC Members Freaking Out Over Plummeting Oil Prices, Demand Emergency Meeting

when you combine the contraction of China's economy with the surplus in oil from Russia, Venezuela and OPEC - prices will continue to fall because oil is the number one source of income for these countries. They will never reduce production if it means less money. Saudi Arabia may be able to handle 24 months of austerity, but not Iran or Russia.

Don't forget we should be switching away from the summer blend soon, which is more expensive; that should drop the price further...

A broken cartel should have been priority #1. Build Keystone.

Iran no longer holds any real sway in OPEC - I doubt that other producers would be willing to reduce their sales in order to accommodate Iran releasing another 1.5 million barrels of oil. With a worlwide glut of oil - along with average consumption per vehicle going down - and the fact that they can no longer force a price increase on the USA (They would manipulate the exchange rate to do that) - who no longer needs the oil - OPEC is in big trouble. If they force a major increase on Europe - whose economy is still tanked - they risk a global recession which would reduce their sales even more. Meanwhile - China - the other user - has agreements already in place so it won't affect them as much. And while China is NOT contracting - they are slowing down. The recent devaluation of the chinese has backfired. It was designed to again force more on the US economy by making our exports more expensive to china - and making Chinese imports cheaper -but what it did do is eliminate trust in the Chinese Stocks of overvalued companies selling at multiples often as high as 100 time forward earnings - which then rippled to the European and then US stock Market. And the resulting loss of confidence will probably lead to a slowdown of buying around the world. The Chinese move was in the end - among the worst things that they could have done.

TomM, I was laughing hard at your comment, really. Typical Republican rubbish, please don't spew things you know nothing about.