& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Opec under pressure to act in face of $100 oil

AFP, Pans
The oil producing cartel Opec will face enormous pressure to help calm the febrile crude market at its next meeting in February after prices struck the symbolic 100-doilar level, analysts said Thursday.
"It (the 100-dollar record) will be a psychological trigger for consumer countries,' said global head of commodities at investment .bank Societe Generale Frederic Lasserre.
"We will see governments putting pressure on Opec, saying 'we need you to do something for us'. In the end though, they (governments) probably share the view that adding a few barrels will not change the market"
The 13-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries shrugged off demands at its last meeting in December, despite a public plea from US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman for an output increase.
The Saudi-led cartel pumps about 40 percent of world oil supplies but restricts the output of its members through a quota system that is reviewed at regular meetings.
London-based analyst John Hall, who runs his own oil consultancy, John Hall Associates, sees Opec bowing to pressure and
making a gesture at the extraordinary meeting in Vienna on February 1.
"I was convinced that they were going to increase output in December. I'm confident they are going to do it this coming month," he said.
"Maybe they can talk the thing up though (the possibility of an increase) and the market will come down. Then they won't need to do it," he said.
Opec. which declined to make anyone available' for interview when contacted by AFR insists that prices are being driven by speculative buying and that increasing supplies would not have an impact on the market.
"For now the cartel's view is that underlying supply and demand conditions are nowhere near as tight as record oil prices would suggest,” said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at research group Capital Economics.
"But if oil prices are still around 100 dollars per barrel in the run-up to the next Opec meeting on February 1, we would expect quotas to be raised again.”
The last raise was in September when US ally Saudi Arabia pushed through an increase of 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the face of reluctance from fellow members, mainly anti-US bloc Venezuela and
Lasserre sees another increase of 500,000 bpd in February, which will formalise current production over the output quota and add a bit to the market.
Analysts agree that a number of factors driving oil prices higher are outside of Opec's control, mainly buying by investment funds, the weaker US dollar, unrest in crude producer Nigeria and instability in Pakistan.
But some do lay blame at the cartel's door for the more than 50-percent increase in prices over 2007.
"Opec has not been pumping enough. It's as simple as that." an analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, Leo Drollas, told AFP, referring to output cuts sanctioned by the cartel at the end of 2006.
Inventories of oil in industrialised countries, a safety cushion in the oil system, have fallen, notably in the United States.
Figures on Thursday showed US stocks of crude oil fell for the seventh week in a row last week, declining 4.0 million barrels to 289.6 million barrels.
Most Opec members, particularly Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, are thought to be unhappy with prices of 100 dollars, preferring to see them at elevated but lower levels of around 80.