GENEVA : The Oil Ante
The fractious membership of OPEC, the world’s most exclusive oil club, will take up the question of house rules when the ministers meet in their favorite Swiss city this week.
On the table will be a raise in the target price that the 13 member nations charge for a barrel of benchmark oil from $18 to $20. Iran, citing recent pledges by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to stay within their assigned production quotas, thinks the time is ripe for such an increase.
Meanwhile, Iraq is making thinly veiled threats against Kuwait if it violates quotas that come out of the Geneva meeting.
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