Since mid-2004, the government refinery-gate reference price has diverged from import parity economics. The gap has been rising ever since.
Our whole goal is to get 100 percent compliance from all counties.
Crude will rise next week on saber-rattling in Nigeria and the UN Security Council meeting.
We are in for higher prices than we had through the 1990s.
At the end of the day, the Middle East is going to be China's premium source of supply for crude.
I think OPEC realizes that China is an extremely important customer moving forward. This is about relationship building.
For Indonesia to continue to develop its oil and gas resources and to step back into the role of a true net exporting country and replace their position in OPEC this is a pretty important deal for them to close.
These people are receiving a return that is commensurate with the risks. What's going on is a concern for foreign investors and we're seeing maybe a bit of resurgence in unrest.
Oil markets have been a bit irrational in the past week or two with long-term supply concerns affecting short-term prices. Iranian oil exports are unlikely to ever be restricted and certainly not anytime soon.
The real fear is an extended outage. We have notable capacity reductions in the U.S. Gulf Coast production, refining and distribution system.
