light sweet crude appreciation day

I try not to post extended excerpts from news sources.
On the other barrel, self imposed rules are made to be broken.

OPEC at output limit, official asserts

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALGIERS, Algeria -- OPEC has reached its production limit, and trying to stretch output by one million barrels per day isn't likely to lower oil prices, Algeria's minister for energy and mines said.

Chakib Khalil said prices were high because of world economic growth - particularly in the United States and China. Algeria is one of the 11 members of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"OPEC has reached its production limits. It doesn't have much production capacity," he said at the opening of an industrial plant in the western town of Arzew, according to newspaper reports on Saturday.

"If it came to a crunch, it has capacity for one million barrels (more per day), and I don't think a production increase would influence the barrel price," he told reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony.

Crude oil futures prices climbed above $54 a barrel Friday after the International Energy Agency estimated global petroleum demand would grow faster than previously expected in 2005...