the big hole in your argument is that a few million bbls either way of Saudi production makes that much difference in the short run. And yes, the info either way would bleed into the press. There are just too many people who spend their lives talking to each other re nominations, price formula, etc. You gotta do something to fill the day.

If no Saudi customer wishes to expand their nominations or load at the upper range of their month's allocation, Saudi isn't just going to over produce to knock the price down. Unless they are trying to send a message to the rest of OPEC not to cheat on quotas or to knock out non OPEC investment. The need to do that is over as everyone else is pretty much maxed out and non OPEC can barely keep production stable in the face of field declines. This ain't the 80's anymore.

tennisball,

I like your logic though....

Let's get the same kind of openness going in all energy industries.

Example: I go to dozens of websites of advanced battery companies that claim they build these miracle batteries, 15,000 cycles with no loss of output, half the size and weight of lead acid batteries or ni cad...recharge in minutes, etc, etc....

O.K., where's the phone number, what's the price, what's the minimum order to get them?

So many of them make claims, but what they don't tell you on the pretty web site is that the public cannot buy these batteries, and in fact, some of them have never been sold to an outside customer at all....:-(

If folks say "we have it" let's have them price it, and sell it....and give us the connection to buy it. It is only in the last few decades that enterprises can survive for decades without ever selling a thing!

RC

I have been thinking that sour oil is behind this "market is well supplied" line that the Saudis have been using. After all, it's not their fault if they're offering crap and no one is buying, right?