VOL. XLV

No 29

22-July-2002

OPEC

Politics And MidwestUS Stock Concerns Keep Crude PricesStrong

Prices last week werebuoyed by the recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report predicting ademand rebound in 2003, by growing expectation that President George W Bushwill order military strikes against Iraq,by renewed violence between Palestineand Israel,and by a decline in UScrude inventories. The continuing dispute between the UN and Baghdadwas a factor, too, with Iraqi crude exports to the US...