BIKE: Bush begs for oil

[Roger Baker]

What sadder sight than a hopeless glutton of a junkie pleading with his  
pusher for more junk so America can keep nodding off.

The truth is known. Ghawar is in trouble and the Saudis can't produce  
enough to make much difference, so they send us sour crude and lie  
about their ability to deliver more soon. -- Roger

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<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news? 
pid=10001099&sid=a3CHMp2llxt4&refer=energy>

Bush Says Saudis Realize Need for `Reasonable' Prices (Update1)

  April 25 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said before meeting  
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah that the Saudis know oil prices must be  
kept ``reasonable'' to prevent a slowdown in the global economy.

  ``This is an important relationship,'' Bush said today at his ranch in  
Crawford, Texas, just before greeting Abdullah. ``The crown prince  
understands that it's very important to make sure that prices are  
reasonable'' because ``high oil prices damage markets.''

  Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter and the U.S. is the  
biggest oil consumer. Prices surged last week on speculation that a  
rash of refinery disruptions will cut U.S. gasoline supplies before the  
summer driving season. Crude oil for June delivery rose to $55.45 a  
barrel at 11:59 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 52 percent  
from a year ago.

  The rising pump price for gasoline -- averaging $2.218 a gallon for  
regular, according to auto club AAA -- has crimped consumer spending in  
the U.S. and a drop in consumer confidence.

  ``One thing is for certain, the price of crude is driving the price of  
gasoline,'' Bush, who ran an oil company in Texas before entering  
politics, said. ``And the price of crude is up because not only is our  
economy growing, but economies such as India's and China's are  
growing.''

  Production Figures

  Earlier this month, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the kingdom  
may boost its oil output capacity by a third in the next 15 years to  
help avert oil shortages and lower prices.

  The Persian Gulf country, which now has an oil output capacity of 11  
million barrels a day, could pump 15 million barrels a day ``anytime  
over the next 15 years,'' al-Naimi said April 6. Saudi Arabia now  
produces about 9.5 million barrels of a day.

  ``We'll talk about his country's capacity'' to produce oil, Bush said  
before meeting Abdullah.

  Production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose  
0.8 percent in March to a four-month high of 29.92 million barrels a  
day as members tried to quell surging prices, Bloomberg data show. The  
group supplies about 40 percent of the world's oil.

  The 11-nation organization agreed on March 16 to boost its official  
quota by 500,000 barrels a day to 27.5 million barrels a day and  
pledged to add another half a million barrels a day as early as May, if  
prices rise and demand warrants it.

  OPEC ministers will hold their next meeting, originally scheduled for  
June 7, on June 15 in Vienna to discuss production quotas for the third  
quarter.

  Congressional Action

  Bush has been prodding Congress, most recently in a speech last week,  
to pass the energy proposals he offered at the start of his first term  
in 2001. The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved an energy  
bill that opens a wildlife refuge in Alaska to oil exploration,  
protects makers of the gasoline- additive MTBE from product-liability  
lawsuits and includes $8.1 billion in tax incentives over 10 years for  
energy producers.

  The bill may not pass the Senate with the same measures. The Senate  
failed in 2003 to pass an energy bill because of objections to the size  
of the tax breaks and the liability waiver for producers of MTBE, a  
suspected carcinogen that has been found in groundwater.


To contact the reporter on this story:
Brendan Murray in Waco, Texas, at  brmurray