OPEC oil won’t satiate market

TEXT OF STORY

Doug Krizner: Crude-oil prices are trading at near record levels this morning, even though OPEC announced yesterday it was putting more oil onto the world market. Stephen Beard reports from London.

Stephen Beard: Traders say that OPEC’s planned increase of half a million barrels a day is too little to make much of a difference. Global demand is still soaring. Stockpiles are running low. Even the possibility of recession in the U.S. and a downturn in American demand have failed to curb the price of crude.

That, says Analyst Michael Hughes, is because emerging economies, like those of China and India, still have an insatiable need for energy:

Michael Hughes: These developing countries aren’t slowing down, so the demand-supply balance is going to remain pretty acute. And hence people are forecasting oil prices of over $90.

But those members of OPEC who argued for no increase in output say a U.S. downturn could be more severe than expected — which might hit the emerging economies too, undermining their demand for oil. And that could bring oil prices down with a bump.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.