[zainalara]

A very important tipping point was reached last week when the IEA decided to release 60mb of oil to replace Libyan oil production taken off of the market due to their civil war. After OPEC and in particular SA refused to increase production to make up for the loss of the Libyan oil, the IEA stepped in. This was an important shift. It effectively means the IEA is now the world's swing oil producer and will have to intervene to calm oil price moves, not just pump oil in case of strategic emergencies, which was the original purpose of the IEA reserves of oil. After a decade of rising oil prices, rising more than 10 fold sense 1999, and after repeated pledges by SA to increase production to stabilize world oil prices, it was apparent they can't and couldn't. SA produces less oil today in 2011 than it did in 2005. SA is no longer the swing producer. No one believes that anymore. That role has now shifted to the IEA What that means from here on out, who knows. But, it is an important tipping point politically, economically, and in the debate about PO.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zainalara', ' ')SA produces less oil today in 2011 than it did in 2005.