VOL. XLVII

No 05

2-February-2004

OPEC

IEAs Reliance On Spare Saudi Oil Production Capacity Likely To Boost Price Volatility, Says ESAI

The gentlemans agreement between OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA) of February 2003 established the precedent that consumer countries would allow producers with spare capacity (mainly Saudi Arabia) to make up for supply shortfalls in a crisis before strategic stocks held by consumer countries were released. While this has been hailed by some observers...