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Oil still rising after Saudi summit

Stephen Beard Jun 23, 2008
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Oil still rising after Saudi summit

Stephen Beard Jun 23, 2008
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Scott Jagow: No one seems to be listening to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis declared the price of oil unjustified and unreasonable. Oil climbed even further.
The Saudis said they would pump more oil. The price went up again. And yesterday, Saudi Arabia held an emergency oil summit in the city of Jeddah. Again, they vowed to produced more oil. So take a guess what happened? The price of oil climbed to $137 a barrel this morning. Stephen Beard has more from London.


Stephen Beard: Pretty soon, the Saudis will be pumping at their highest level for 30 years. But no other OPEC members in Jeddah followed the Saudi example.

Rob Laughlin of MF Global says that’s why the price of oil is higher this morning:

Rob Laughlin: Reason we’re up is obviously the failure of the meeting in Jeddah yesterday. Certainly the market’s perception is that we’ve failed, because we haven’t really got any substantial extra supplies of oil hitting the world market.

In fact, the Saudi increase is likely to be outweighed by the loss of production in Nigeria. Some major oil fields there remain shut following attacks last week by militants. Nigeria is now pumping crude at its lowest level for a quarter of a century.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.

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