"Our position based on the market is
that we should have trimmed production. The market is behaving in a
different way, affected by geopolitical factors to a great extent. Nobody at
this moment is in a position to set a floor and a ceiling price for OPEC
oil."
-Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez
said on Tuesday in reference to the OPEC meeting in Vienna on March 8 where
the energy minister feels that OPEC should have cut production by 500,000
b/d. OPEC, which supplies 40% of the world's crude oil, decided in its
latest meeting to maintain output at 28 million b/d despite Ramirez's push
for a production cut.
"Gasoline prices do have a consistent seasonal
tendency to rally from March into May and the price action is reinforcing
the belief that history will repeat itself."
Tim Evans, energy analyst at IFR Energy
Services, said in a report as April unleaded gasoline on the New York
Mercantile Exchange settled 12.27 cents higher at $1.8660/gal Tuesday, the
highest front-month contract settlement since October 5, 2005.
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