In the past two or three years, the demand drop in the second quarter had not been as bad as it had been much, much earlier. |
In the second quarter, we forecast an overhang [of supply] of maybe 2 million barrels a day. |
In the wake of recent experience, no one is saying that this threat should be taken lightly. |
It's better than a deal. |
Just rest assured, we are under obligation to the market to keep the market well supplied. We meet as often as it takes to micro-manage the short-term volatility. |
One thing OPEC tries to do is preserve market stability. We have said we will continue to monitor closely, and depending on what we see we will do what is best for the market. ... We need to know more about demand. |
OPEC is committed to supplying the market at a reasonable price. Of the two, we're more committed to supplying the market and keeping it stable. I can't fix the price. |
OPEC is not going to be the decisive action but we want to reassure the market by saying we have this extra capacity, |
OPEC is not part of the misunderstanding between Iran and the Western democracies. |
Prices have their ebbs and flows. We are concerned that prices don't get out of hand. |
That's what we have almost seen with China and India's demand. |
The current shoot up we are experiencing is as a result of the Iran problems and it's not helped by the flare up between Israel and the Palestinians. |
The market has not been impressed by small increments, so for market psychology it would be better to increase by a million and see if we can meet it, |
The market is well supplied - actually it is in balance. After Katrina, everybody offered crude but the refining capacity was not there to cope with it. |
The market should rest assured that whatever it needs is there. Before that there is no need to do anything. |