: According to the article, the big 5 Arabic oil countries will control 35% of total oil production in the year 2001; at which point they will be in a similar position to their position in the early '70s. It doesn't take a genius to realize that oil prices may well rise at that point; at which point the current boom in the US will fail (if it hasn't already).The Saudi oil minister was interviewed yesterday; he is quoted as saying (oil prices)"...will almost certainly continue to increase for a while"
...basically, the OPEC countries are cutting oil production in an attempt to bolster prices; Saudi Arabia is cutting production from 8 million barrels a day to 7.4 million barrels a day.
Gideon.