"The report kept unchanged forecasts which point to a smaller share of the world oil market for OPEC in 2014 due to increasing supply from the United States, in the midst of a shale energy boom, and other non-OPEC countries." Notice "which point to". "point to" is not a fact, only hot air so far. If it turns out not to be correct, they would just add a BUT, or simply forget it as if they never said a thing. The US should kick those russians and chinese out of the middle east. It would be a mistake to allow them to have a foot hold in there. The US could do it pretty easily now with the stroke of a pen. However, if the chinese and russians stick in there, how would they be removed?
"Involuntary outages, as opposed to elective cutbacks, are taking their toll on OPEC output. Libya's output fell the most of the 12 OPEC members last month due to strikes and protests. Oilfield maintenance in Nigeria and a cutback in Saudi Arabia also reduced supply."
Notice "taking their toll". It sounds the article may be politically motivated. The man in this forum is planning to buy, and they say "taking their toll". It is absurd.
From your article: "That suggests there will be virtually no surplus crude in the market in 2014 should OPEC keep output at November's rate. " The article went from OPEC irrelevant to OPEC will determine whether there is a surplus or not. Is the world then dependent or not dependent on OPEC?
TJ, you really are clueless here. First of all, we don't even get most of our OIL from the middle east. Only about 15% to 20% of our supply comes from the middle east. Second, we are flooded with nat gas. Price is NOT going higher. The forward curve has been flattening big time. And physical prices are very soft. What you are watching is front month futures prices which is a function of short term supply, seasonal issues and weather. Come on man.