Just In Time For Christmas!

The Saudis tried to help Bush this fall by increasing production, and may have helped save the Tennessee Senate seat and a handful of Congressional races for him, but...:

OPEC must cut again, $60 oil "moderate": Qatar

By Ikuko Kao

TOKYO (Reuters) - Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Saturday that OPEC will have to cut oil production further when it meets in Nigeria next month, and that a $60 U.S. crude oil price was "moderate."

"Our Abuja meeting has no choice but to accept a cut," Attiyah told Reuters, in the hardest comments yet from an OPEC official to indicate that a further reduction in supply will be required. "The market is oversupplied."

"The Doha cut was not efficient in stabilizing the market."

He said a cut could be around 500,000 to 1 million barrels per day, although it was hard to predict.

Oil reached a high of $78.53 a barrel in July, and then dropped some 25% in the ensuing months (particularly after Labor Day). However, It bottomed out at $56 a barrel, which is still very pricey and not far from the levels experienced in the wake of Katrina.

For al-Attiyah to hint that $60 might be in the middle of the target range does not bode well for those who use oil to heat their homes. Further, this immediate cut is to stem a possible oil glut in the spring of 2007, so we can expect gas prices to zoom up in May, ahead of the summer travel season.

$4 a gallon, anyone?