Opec

GASOLINE prices were too good to be true and have gone up. Expect another 8 to 15 cent-a-gallon increase at the pump before summer vacation but not the higher prices of two years ago.Oil prices sank because the Asian recession reduced demand, and producer countries that regulate supply were cheating to boost national revenues to meet government deficits. Regimes at war or subverting each other could not cooperate. Two attempts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to limit production failed last year.

AVERAGE U.S. gasoline prices pushed above $1 a gallon last week for the first time since late last year, according to a government survey. One reason: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries reached an agreement to cut production of crude oil in an effort to prop up its price. OPEC and four non-OPEC countries have promised to reduce output by 2.1 million barrels a day.Crude prices fell to around $10 a barrel last year, as the Asian economic slowdown created an oil glut. Lately, though, they've risen above $15 a barrel for May delivery on the assumption that OPEC's deal will work.

NEW YORK -- Crude oil rose more than 6 percent yesterday to a five-month high after some of the world's top producers agreed this week to meet in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to work on an agreement to cut output and boost prices.Saudi Arabia, the world's top producer, will meet with Mexico, Venezuela, Iran and others to hash out an agreement before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries convenes March 23.Oil fell to a 12-year low in December after OPEC failed to reduce supplies as expected.

WITH oil prices having recently hit nine-year lows, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is once again planning to cut production.At their meeting Monday, 10 members of OPEC and four other nations pledged to cut 1.4 million barrels a day. But the last time OPEC met, in November, it agreed to boost its output quota by 10 percent, and, according to the Middle East Economic Survey, production exceeded the quota by 1.27 million barrels in February.Will...

VIENNA, Austria -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries postponed next week's committee meeting yesterday in a bid to persuade Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to consider cutbacks in oil production to boost prices.Prices have fallen 25 percent to four-year lows since Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter, persuaded the group to boost output in late November. In recent years, OPEC's 11 members have been unable to control their production, which accounts for more than a third of world supply.

Drivers haven't had it this good in a long time. Crude oil prices recently hit a four-year low, helping to pull inflation-adjusted gasoline prices to their lowest level ever. Nationally, the average price of all grades of gasoline dropped to about $1.07 a gallon at the start of this month and just under $1.03 per gallon for regular.In the Baltimore area, the wholesale price of regular gasoline averaged a little more than 47 cents per gallon last week, a 26-cent drop from last summer's 73 cents per gallon.

IF COLLUSION among oil-producing countries to restrain trade works, U.S. motorists will soon pay a nickel more for a gallon of gasoline, but nothing like the 20 cents more they paid a year ago.The leading members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plus non-member Mexico, agreed Sunday to cut production quotas, hoping to reduce world production by 2.6 percent. This was a change for Mexico. Powerful Norway has not decided whether to go along.In November, OPEC raised production quotas, if only because some members were tired of other members cheating.

CHICAGO -- Providing a rare look at internal discussions in the pharmaceutical industry, a federal judge has quoted from sealed industry documents that compare the industry to a cartel, or "kind of an OPEC," which, the judge said, shared information on pricing and competition.Judge Charles P. Kocoras of U.S. District Court in Chicago included the remarks in a 76-page decision he issued last week in ordering a trial of drug manufacturers in a lawsuit brought by independent retail pharmacies.

DALLAS -- Oil prices bounded yesterday to their highest levels in a year as OPEC vowed not to boost crude production this year and a report showed that stockpiles had fallen in the United States.Crude oil for July delivery rose 91 cents, to $19.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, continuing an advance from the $14 range in March.Analysts also pointed to fears of a Korean confrontation with the West over nuclear weapons, and fresh signs that no oil would soon be flowing from Iraq.

GENEVA -- Overproduction by OPEC has cost member nations $6 billion since March, but on the eve of their fall conference, oil ministers remain sharply at odds over how to reverse those losses.With the average OPEC barrel of oil selling for just over $15, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cannot afford to leave the meeting without signatures and firm promises from the group's 12 members, oil experts and senior OPEC officials agree.To try to cut oil production enough to spark a price rally while still satisfying demands by Kuwait, Iran and others for increases in output quotas is a delicate balancing act.How many barrels will be designated in OPEC's fourth-quarter production pact is uncertain.

With the global economy in the throes of a recession, oil producers are facing their toughest business prospects in 25 years. Oil demand is expected to decline this year and next, the first drop since the energy shocks of the early 1980s. As economic growth slows sharply, oil prices have collapsed from their summer peaks in record time. The stunning speed of the downturn has made for a nightmare for producers, who face shrinking revenue next year. Oil has lost $100 a barrel, or 70 percent of its value, since July.

CHICAGO - Workers lose their jobs, but they won't leave Workers who got three days' notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay. About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts yesterday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind. Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days' notice required by law before shutting down.

The good news: Gas prices are down just about everywhere. AAA, the auto club, says the national average is now less than $3 a gallon. The bad news: the lower prices likely won't last, because the OPEC countries are planning to cut back on production. For a moment, I was hoping that airlines would reduce fuel surcharges for trips to Europe and maybe even slash some add-on fees that were supposed to pay for higher fuel costs. The airlines are surely benefiting from the recent lower fuel costs; why shouldn't passengers?

Stand back. Give me some air. Everybody, please, back off. Someone call a doctor. I just read the outside of the bag that came back from the corner pharmacy: $180.38 for 30 capsules of medication that I need to improve the quality of my life and perhaps extend it. The co-pay was $76.60, but still ... Someone call the cops! If Obama gets elected, can we just arrest the people who run the drug companies that charge this kind of price? I say take the CEO and the board of directors and hold them at Gitmo.

WASHINGTON - In what's becoming a ritual in the nation's capital, top executives of major oil companies received a heaping of verbal abuse from lawmakers of both parties yesterday and defensively blamed Congress for many of today's energy woes. While the public relations battle went on in the Senate Judiciary Committee, crude oil prices shot up more than $4 to $133.17 - another record high - on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Senate hearing may have served as a cathartic platform to grumble on behalf of constituents, but Americans can rest assured that they'll still pay more for gasoline in the months ahead.

VIENNA, Austria -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries sought to regain its authority over volatile oil markets yesterday, agreeing to increase production by 500,000 barrels a day. But prices still rose to a record. At the same time, representatives of leading OPEC nations said they feared that a slowing global economy might dampen future demand. The oil cartel signaled that it would be ready to act swiftly to protect its members' interests. The decision by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries came after an unusually long day of arguments about the size and the timing of the increase in production, intended to meet an expected surge in winter consumption and to push prices down.

ATLANTA -- The nation is heading into the winter holiday season with plenty of crude oil but with thinning stores of gasoline and heating oil, the government reported yesterday. Last week, inventories of crude soared by 5.1 million barrels, which gave the nation 5.8 percent more than it had a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Gasoline inventories climbed by 1.4 million barrels. Even so, the reserve of gasoline is 0.8 percent less than in November last year.

NEW YORK -- Crude oil rose for a fourth straight day yesterday, trading above $60 a barrel on speculation that OPEC members will agree at a meeting this week to cut production because of a 20 percent drop in prices over the past three months. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet Thursday to discuss reducing output by 1 million barrels a day, oil ministers including Qatar's Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said. Oil prices fell last week to a 2006 low as U.S. supplies rose to 14 percent above the five-year average.

WASHINGTON - It's a move that anyone outraged by high gasoline prices would applaud - a nonprofit labor group suing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC). That was in 1978, though - and the lawsuit failed. A U.S. appeals court threw it out three years later, noting that OPEC's member states enjoy immunity from prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Congress recently had a perfect opportunity to change that - and wasted it. In June, the Senate approved an amendment that would have let the federal government sue OPEC.

Although $50-per-barrel oil is getting to feel normal, many U.S. policy-makers and other oil "optimists" still talk about high prices as a temporary spike lasting at most a couple of years. Oil prices, they tell us, are being driven mainly by those gouging Machiavellians at OPEC and are therefore relatively short term. According to the optimists, the same high prices that are filling OPEC's coffers today will encourage other, non-OPEC oil producers, such as Russia or Kazakhstan, to drill more oil wells to cash in on the hot prices.