VOL. XLI

No. 28

13-July-1998

OPEC

The Oil Market And The First Law Of Holes

by Paul Stevens

The following article was written by Professor Paul Stevens, Professor of Petroleumand Economics at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, Universityof Dundee, Scotland.

In 1983, the British politician Denis Healey discovered his First Law of Holes -"If you are in one, stop digging." Following the OPEC meeting in Jakarta lastyear, the oil price was in an ever deepening hole. Whether...