CRUNCH TIME FOR OIL

MEES Executive Editor Ian Seymour Reports on the OPEC Scene after the Vienna Committee Meeting

Last week's meeting (3-4 February) of the five-member OPEC ministerial committee on policy options left the world oil market very much as it found it - that is to say with the barometer set at stormy weather with the prospect of worse, maybe much worse, to come in the prevailing free-for-all on prices and production between all oil exporters, OPEC and non-OPEC alike.

The...