BIKE: Fair warning to TxDOT's toll road bond hustlers

[Roger Baker]

This warning below by OPEC to the USA to start selling its emergency  
strategic petroleum reserves to hold down oil costs is an ominous sign.

It is OPEC's way of telling the USA that it is facing an emergency. It  
amounts to the captain of an airliner telling his passengers to make  
sure their parachutes are ready to deploy.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news? 
pid=10001099&sid=a5SegP7d1RuA&refer=energy

Here is another good link exposing the reserve shortfalls of OPEC's  
biggest supplier, Saudi Arabia:

http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/IPAA-IPAMS-DESK%20&%20DERRICK.pdf

                
**************************************************************

OPEC President Says U.S. Should Tap Oil Stockpile (Update6)

  Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the  
U.S. should tap its emergency oil reserve, as members pump near their  
limit in a failed bid to lower prices from a record high.

  The call increases pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush to use  
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, amassed after the Arab oil embargo of  
the 1970s. The acting secretary-general of the Organization of  
Petroleum Exporting Countries, Maizar Rahman, said late yesterday in  
Moscow oil prices may surge to $80 a barrel because members of the  
group have little spare capacity to compensate for disruptions to  
supplies.

  OPEC's request ``puts the U.S. under the spotlight,'' said Dariusz  
Kowalczyk, senior investment strategist at CFC Securities Ltd. in Hong  
Kong. ``It also highlights the erosion of the OPEC grip on crude  
prices.''

  Purnomo said OPEC ``has been communicating with'' U.S. officials about  
using the stockpile. ``We asked them to release oil,'' he said in  
response to questions from reporters in Gandul, a district south of  
Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. An oil ministry official at OPEC member  
Qatar said the agency has received a letter to back a formal OPEC  
request for a release of U.S. oil.

  Reversal

  Purnomo's stance marks an about-face for OPEC, which for years has  
told the U.S. that the stockpile shouldn't be used to lower prices.  
Founded in 1960 in Baghdad, the 11-member group normally agrees to  
limit supplies to bolster prices. Ministers are now concerned high  
prices may slow global economic growth...
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 2364 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bicycleaustin.info/private.cgi/forum-bicycleaustin.info/attachments/20041027/4a5e9df4/attachment.bin