Oil will go down, Saudi's say so

This is a thing of beauty, just 2 hours ago, Saudi minister calls oil prices 'unjustified' and wants a meeting. But the 'experts' say it won't help anything. Rock the Casbah.

Saudi Arabia says it will call for a meeting of oil producing countries and consumers to discuss soaring oil prices and work to prevent unjustified rise in prices.

Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani says the kingdom will work with the Organizatiion of Petroleum Exporting Countries to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future."

In a statement following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Monday, the minister said Saudi Arabia will also work to control "unwarranted and unnatural" price hikes.

He said that the current price of oil is unjustified.

It's not a situation that's going to move the market today," said Phil Flynn at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, suggesting that there it might have a more long term effect. "I do think a conference is warranted, we need to sit down."

Jim Ritterbusch, president of the U.S.-based energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates cautioned that such meetings have taken place in the past and could be more an effort to calm the market without taking concrete measures.

"It's not anywhere near as significant as if they called an emergency OPEC meeting," he said. "It seems to me to be more political than anything ... They're reaching their worry threshold."

The Saudis are concerned that sustained high oil prices will eventually slacken the world's appetite for oil, affecting them in the long run.

Investors last month shrugged off news that Saudi Arabia had increased production by 300,000 barrels a day after a visit from President Bush, who sought a major production increase.

Energy experts say most producers have little ability to expand output. The exception is Saudi Arabia, which is producing about 9.4 million barrels a day and has the ability to increase production by about 2 million barrels a day, but has not done so.

"In the current circumstances, every barrel that can be used is being used," said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy. "Unless the Saudis and OPEC suddenly produce some oil that nobody has heretofore known about, then this meeting is likely to produce no meaningful outcomes."

The current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chakib Khelil, has said that the cartel will make no new decision on production levels until its Sept. 9 meeting in Vienna.

Associated Press Writer John Wilen contributed to this report from New York

SOURCES: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-06-09-saudis-oil-prices_N.htm?csp=34

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080609/saudi_oil.html

BETTER SOURCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAkfHShATKY