USA asks for more oil, and Russia says yes

The oil prices continue growing.
International experts say that the oil price will continue growing after reaching the mark of $50 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the mood in the global oil market is close to panic, and the statements of the OPEC heads on possible increase of the extracted oil, produce little effect.

The OPEC countries produce more than 30 million barrels of oil per day, but this amount of oil is not sufficient. OPEC has no capacities for increasing the amount of the drilled oil, while the demand for oil is growing rapidly. The biggest consumers of the “black gold”, which increase using oil are India, China, USA. The China announced its increase in importing oil in July 2004 as 40.7 percent, in comparison with July 2003.

The officials of the USA, the European countries and even Russia (which is one of the biggest oil exporters) say about a serious danger of too high oil prices for the economy.

The Head of the US Treasury John Snow said that the government is very concerned about the continuing oil price growth. In turn, the Head of Russian Ministry for Economic Development Herman Gref believes that the current prices for oil caused inflation increase in Russia.

Global oil market is still overheated, among other things with the rumors on future oil price growth. Analyst of one of the international investment companies Bruce Evers believe that the oil price will  remain very high, at least until 2005. If problems arise about the oil supplied from Iraq and Venezuela, the oil price can reach $70 per barrel and surpass this mark.

If even rich America suffers from the high oil prices, China and India must already be crying. In this situation it is not surprising that the US leaders ask for Russia’s assistance in putting the oil market in order. During the recent phone conversation between George Bush and Vladimir Putin, the Russian President assured his US counterpart that our country is going to increase its oil drilling and oil export.

Gennady Yastrebtsov