Clear as mud; The prospects for oil.(Oil markets are jittery--again)(global economic conditions may cause oil prices to fall)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, September, 2001

Oil prices are falling--for now

"NO REASON to panic," cooed Bijan Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister, this week in an effort to calm oil markets before a meeting of the OPEC cartel in Vienna on September 26th. "We believe OPEC is able to manage the market and this situation is mainly because of speculation and will disappear very soon."

For much of the past two years, the cartel's bosses have periodically offered such platitudes, as prices edged up past $30 a barrel. Their aim used to be to reassure the big consuming economies that they would not let prices go too high for too long. This time, though, Mr Zanganeh's plea could well have been directed at fellow cartel members--for oil prices are now heading in the opposite direction.

After the...

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