$130 billion to increase worldwide oil dependency

Just as governments throughout the world begin rushing to find ways to conserve energy, OPEC nations are planning to invest $130 billion to raise oil output.  Translation: there will soon be more supply, and less of an incentive for Washington establishment types to take action:

Opec member countries plan to invest about$130 billion by 2012 to raise oil output in order to meet risingdemand, said Mohammed bin Dha'en Al Hamili, Opec President and UAEMinister of Energy.

Addressingthe 10th annual executive East-Meets-West conference, which isorganised by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) in Istanbul,he said another $500 billion is planned to be invested in productioncapacity expansion and the provision of other oil relatedinfrastructure between 2013 and 2020.

Hamili called for mutual understanding and cooperation among producing and consuming nations and for transparency on the issues involving supply and demand.

"AllOpec members are developing countries with huge competing developmentalneeds. Their total gross domestic product in 2005 was $1.4 trillion.The value of their total exports was $ 703 billion of which oilaccounted for $ 512 billion or over 70 per cent. Opec member countrieshave over 900 billion barrels or more than 78 per cent of the totalproven crude oil reserves of 1.2 trillion barrels," he said.

OPEC stands for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  It was formed in 1960 thanks to a partnership between Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  There are obviously more members today.  Countries that rely on OPEC the most, such as the United States, prefer to have a say in the domestic politics within each of those countries.  Fittingly, those five have been military trouble spots over the last generation -- at the same time as oil demand continues to rise.

Comments

[Chris Huston]

I have a family member who's a member of this. Saudi Aramco is building a petrochemical plant to convert oil into other materials like chlorinated plastics that will be built around 2012 and be the largest petrochemical plant in the world.

[Chris Huston]

just realized my phrasing sounded odd. By member I meant I have a family member working for Saudi Aramco on said project