FRIDAY OCTOBER 27 2000 Yamani voices oil price fears BY CARL MORTISHED SHEIKH Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the former Saudi Oil Minister, is predicting a crash in the oil price to $10 per barrel next year if Opec fails to rein in production in the spring. In an interview in Forbes Global magazine, Sheikh Yamani, forecasts that the current shortage will reverse through extra oil production. Sheikh Yamani, who advised King Faisal during the oil embargo in 1973, heads the Centre for Global Energy Studies, which predicts global output rising 1.4 million barrels per day this winter and a fall in consumption next spring. Oil prices yesterday surged briefly to more than $32 after Iraq said that it would suspend oil exports on November 1 unless it received payment in euros. Sheikh Yamani said of the Iraqi President: BSaddam Hussein could commit suicide by stopping production. The oil price would jump to $50 per barrel.BB

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,26001,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 26, 2000

Answers

If oil jumped to $50 a barrel after Iraq stopped exports on November 1 that would certainly do in Gore's bid to become president.

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.com), October 26, 2000.

If we get $50 oil right after November 1, we'll have to call upon President Bush to fix the problem.

-- Chance (fruitloops@hotmail.com), October 26, 2000.

An oil price spike to $50 a barrel would induce a quick stock market collapse. The tight supply situation we are now in is bad enough. Saddam can supply the back breaker. Face it, as repugnant as the thought is, we are at his mercy.

-- Wayward (wayward@webtv.net), October 26, 2000.